Darwin suggested looking at a species’ close relatives to learn what its ancestors may have been like. how does his suggestion anticipate recent methods, such as phylogenetic bracketing and the use of outgroups in cladistic analysis?

Darwin asserted that it was possible to recognize ancestral characteristics of a species if we look at how close relatives are. This statement resembles the concept used in the process called phylogenetic bracketing (because this method looks for characteristics in individuals by analyzing their position in a phylogenetic tree and comparing characteristics with species in similar positions) and resembles the process called cladistic analysis (which states that the classification of organisms must be made according to their evolutionary relationships)

Explanation:

Both Darwin's speech, phylogenetic bracketing, and cladistic analysis are approaches that are based on solid evidence for how groups of living species are related through common ancestry between these groups.