Order out of Chaos classification and naming in biology. Part 2 Sandy Knapp Department of Life Sciences The Natural History Museum London Kinds of groups - cladistics Polyphyletic = members of group scattered Tree from Biodiversity = Tree of Life The species level is not the same across the entire tree Courtesy of Brent Mischler (UC Berkeley) Image from Mark Blaxter Protoperidenium depressum NHM Baldauf (2003) Science 300: Rondnia, Brazil I wonder how much it would cost to buy back the birds and butterflies. I wonder what is the price of restocking the sky. .. The funny thing about species decimation, I think, is that we got it all wrong. All those campaigns the sad-eyed seal, the hopeless panda aimed at making us feel sorry for the endangered creatures. . But of course, theyre not sorry for themselves. Theyre dead. Theyre dead and gone from the world and they dont know anything. The only creatures left to feel emotion about this will be us. And we will just be incredibly lonely. On biodiversity loss Caitlin Moran, The Times Magazine, 14 July 2012