About Cladlet: Trait Grove
Meet a grove of fictional organisms with horns, fins, frills and other curious features. Each study in Cladlet: Trait Grove gives you a rooted tree scaffold and a clear table of present or absent traits. Your task is to place the organisms so every shared derived trait forms one complete descendant group.
Explore 180 studies across three courses. First Branches begins with four organisms and two traits. Nested Groves adds a fifth organism and more nested evidence. Deep Canopy gives you seven organisms, five traits and a larger set of possible placements. The outgroup stays pinned while you work with the remaining organisms.
Select an organism, choose a tip and refine the groups. Move or swap placements, undo a step, or request a hint that preserves as much of your work as possible. Any placement consistent with the evidence and given scaffold can succeed, including equivalent sibling arrangements.
These original fictional studies use a simplified model with no convergence or trait loss. The scaffold does not measure evolutionary time or rank organisms from less to more advanced. The matrix need not establish one uniquely resolved real-world phylogeny.
Earn up to three stars for each study, revisit earlier field notes and improve your best result. Your best stars, course position and sound setting are saved on this device when browser storage is available.
How to Play Cladlet: Trait Grove
Choose First Branches (Easy), Nested Groves (Medium) or Deep Canopy (Hard). Each course has 60 studies. Read the trait matrix: ● means the named feature is present; — means it is absent. The fictional outgroup is already pinned to its tip.
Select an organism in the matrix or on the 3D display, then choose an available tree tip. Selecting an organism already on the tree lets you move it. If both its current tip and the destination are occupied, the two organisms swap. Remove returns an organism to the bench.
For each trait, all organisms marked 1 must be exactly the full set of descendants of some node. A group containing additional organisms without that trait does not fit. Fill every movable tip, then Check tree. Several consistent arrangements can be accepted; there is no single required left-to-right order.
Use Undo to revisit a placement, Reset to restart the study or Hint to find a next move toward a closest valid completion. Hints do not place organisms for you. Mistakes and hint use remain recorded after Undo or Reset.
Desktop: use A–F to select a movable specimen and 1–6 to choose the corresponding numbered tip. Enter checks the tree or continues after success. X removes the selected tip’s occupant, Z undoes a step, R resets, H gives a hint and M toggles sound. Escape cancels a specimen selection or closes help. Tab and Enter activate on-screen controls normally.
Mobile: tap a matrix row or a 3D specimen, then tap a numbered tree tip or its button. Use the on-screen Remove, Cancel, Undo, Reset, Hint, Check and sound controls.
Earn three stars with no unsuccessful checks or hints, two stars with up to two unsuccessful checks and no hints, or one star for any completed study. Undo and Reset preserve check history and hint use. Replaying a study retains your best stars.