Clades (EN)

A clade is a complete branch of the evolutionary family tree. That means it's an ancestral population and every population that descended from it, with no other populations included. Scientists used to classify animals according to their characteristics. Birds were in a separate class from reptiles. Now scientists classify animals according to their evolutionary descent, that is, what clades they are in. Birds, it turns out, are descended from prehistoric reptiles. Reptiles and birds together form a clade called Sauropsida ('lizard faces').
The Clades game consists of 83 cards. Each card has one, two, or three types of animals illustrated on it. On any given card, the animals are all from one of three major clades: mammals, reptiles (including birds), or arthropods (insects, crustaceans, and arachnids). Players try to be the first to spot a match of three cards among 12 cards played face-up on the table. Each player also has a secret card that only they can use to make a match. If you spot a match, you collect those three cards, and whoever has the most cards at the end is the winner. If the match is a "clade" match, such as "all mammals", gives you extra cards. The special Mollusk and Ray-Finned Fish cards also earn you bonus cards. During play, you never wait for someone else to take their turn, and you never get eliminated from the game. You can even play solitaire. It's for ages 6 to adult, and the instructions include several ways to balance the game when some players are more skilled than others.