Systematics is the science that deals with the exploration and understanding of relationships among species and the organization of life, past and present. Longstanding leadership in this field is one of the hallmarks of the Museum’s scientific program. In the 1970s and 1980s, Museum pioneered the study of the branching patterns of evolutionary relationships among organisms and promoted a revolution in this field, with further advances continuing today. Although systematics is a discipline with its own methods and goals, it can also serve as a tool to support researchers pursuing other areas of comparative biology.