If framed with care and discipline, adaptive scenarios are scientifically testable hypotheses that may illuminate and lead to the solution of complex evolutionary questions. Cladograms and phylogenetic trees do not necessarily need to precede such scenarios, because the complexity of scenarios and the extent of their anatomical, ecological, paleoenvironmental implications may make them more testable, and more robust after testing, than a simple cladogram. Leaping, jumping, and flapping were selected as fighting behaviors that were also preadaptive to flight. The scenario provides a unified theme which can explain the evolution of strong feathers and flight as a result of the same sexual selective pressure, and all available evidence from Archaeopteryx is compatible with it. Their hypotheses are often framed as cladograms, trees, or scenarios.
Cladograms display hypotheses of relationship among organisms.
Their data base is almost entirely morphological, and many cladists explicitly reject information from the stratigraphic record. Trees are hypotheses of phylogeny, and morphological and stratigraphic data are both vitally important in their formulation. Both of these styles of hypothesis seek to answer questions about what happened in evolution. They are descriptive, narrative hypotheses based on data that contain as little interpretation as possible. They are testable as hypotheses when new pieces of comparable data become available.