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What does it mean if something is a vertebrate?

What does it mean if something is a vertebrate?

Vertebrates are animals that have a backbone inside their body. The major groups include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Invertebrates don’t have a backbone.

What makes you a vertebrate?

Animals that have a backbone are called vertebrates. The backbone is is a column of bones that supports the body, and also protects the spinal cord. The back is made up of many separate bones, called vertebrae.

What does it mean to be a vertebrate give an example?

A bird that has a backbone is an example of a vertebrate. noun. 15. 4. Having a backbone, or spinal column.

What does lower vertebrates mean?

The author’s definition of ‘lower vertebrates’ is somewhat broader than that used by zoologists. The term will be used to cover birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish-in other words, the non- mammalian vertebrates-whereas the conventional approach is to include birds with the mammals as ‘higher’ vertebrates.

What do vertebrates have in common?

As chordates, vertebrates have the same common features: a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail. Vertebrates are further differentiated from chordates by their vertebral column, which forms when their notochord develops into the column of bony vertebrae separated by discs.

Which is the best definition of a vertibrate?

ver·te·brate. Any of a large group of animals having a backbone, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

What is the definition of a vertebrate animal?

Having a backbone or spinal column. Of or characteristic of vertebrates or a vertebrate. Any of numerous chordate animals of the subphylum Vertebrata, characterized by a segmented spinal column and a distinct well-differentiated head. The vertebrates include the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

What makes an animal a vertebrate or a craniate?

vertebrate, craniate(adj) animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium. vertebrate(adj) having a backbone or spinal column. “fishes and amphibians and reptiles and birds and mammals are verbetrate animals”.

Which is the best definition of a vertebra?

Any of numerous chordate animals of the subphylum Vertebrata, characterized by a segmented spinal column and a distinct well-differentiated head. The vertebrates include the fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. [Latin vertebrātus, having joints, from vertebra, vertebra; see vertebra .]