In contrast, cladistics groups organisms based exclusively on certain kinds of shared traits that are particularly informative. This method begins with the Darwinian precept that evolution proceeds when a new heritable trait emerges in some organism and is passed genetically to its descendants. By identifying shared derived traits, practitioners of cladistics can determine the relationships among the organisms they study. 4 Notice how subjective this method is. Furthermore, it assumes Darwinian evolution to begin with.
Cladistics is simply a tool that can be used to classify things.
The existence of a tool does not guarantee that it will be used correctly. A fool with a tool is still a fool. Neither does their belief that crescent wrist bones are unique, identifying characteristics of dinosaurs make a pigeon a dinosaur. Harriet Ritvo is the Arthur J. Conner Professor of History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.