land vertebrates are a small branch

Categories: Comparisons

An example of metaphor in popular science writing:

"Despite the enormous diversity of life on Earth, it all belongs to the same evolutionary tree. Species that are close to each other on that tree may look different, because they're suited to dissimilar environments, but they still have underlying features in common. If you say 'animal' to someone, they're most likely to think of a land vertebrate – anything from a frog to an elephant – yet that's really only a small branch of the tree of life…"

Andrew May

Andrew May (2019) Astrobiology: The Search for Life Elsewhere in the Universe

Read about metaphor in science

Read about examples of science metaphors

Many examples of science metaphors are listed in 'Creative comparisons: Making science familiar through language. An illustrative catalogue of figurative comparisons and analogies for science concepts'. Free Download.

Author: Keith

Former school and college science teacher, teacher educator, research supervisor, and research methods lecturer. Emeritus Professor of Science Education at the University of Cambridge.