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Biologists often study certain biological systems as models of a phenomenon of interest even if they already know that the phenomenon occurs through diverse mechanisms and hence none of those systems can sufficiently represent it by itself. To understand this modeling practice, the present paper provides an account of how multiple model systems can be used to study a phenomenon whose underlying mechanisms are diverse. Even if generalizability of results from a single model system is significantly limited, generalizations concerning particular aspects of mechanisms often hold across certain ranges of biological systems, which enables multiple model systems to jointly represent such a phenomenon. Comparing mechanisms that operate in different biological systems as examples of the same phenomenon also facilitates characterization and investigation of individual mechanisms. I also compare my account with two existing accounts of the use of multiple model systems and argue that my account is distinct from and complementary to them.