  It is possible to borrow from a topic of biology called phylogenetic
systematics, concepts and tools for a logical and objective classification of
galaxies. It is based on observable properties of objects - characters - either
qualitative (like morphology) or quantitative (like luminosity, mass or
spectrum). Distance analysis can readily be performed using a method called
phenetics and based on characters. But the most promising approach is
cladistics. It makes use of characters that can exist in at least two states,
one being ancestral and the other one derived. Objects are gathered depending
on the derived states they share. We illustrate a first application of this
method to astrophysics, that we name astrocladistics, with dwarf galaxies from
the Local Group.
