He served as past president of the Willi Hennig Society and as editor-in-chief of its journal Cladistics.
[2] He is known for extensive studies in systematics, evolutionary biology, and ecology of amphibians and reptiles He also advanced the theory and philosophy of phylogenetic inference bringing Popperian falsification into the fold of cladistics.
[citation needed] Amongst the new taxa published by Kluge is Crenadactylus, tiny Australian clawless geckos reclassified as a separate genus with co-author James R. Dixon in 1964.
[3] He also described Aprasia pseudopulchella (Flinders Ranges worm-lizard), endemic to South Australia, in 1974.
[4][5] Kluge is honored in the specific names of three species of lizards.