Back Gewerweldes AF Wirbeltiere ALS ባለ አከርካሪ AM Vertebrata AN Hrycgdēor ANG فقاريات Arabic سنسوليات ARY فقاريات ARZ মেৰুদণ্ডী প্ৰাণী AS Vertebrata AST
| Vertebrate | |
|---|---|
| |
| Example of vertebrates: Acipenser oxyrinchus (Actinopterygii), an African bush elephant (Tetrapoda), a Tiger shark (Chondrichthyes) and a River lamprey (Agnatha). | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Superphylum: | Deuterostomia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Olfactores |
| Subphylum: | Vertebrata J-B. Lamarck, 1801[2] |
| Infraphyla | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Ossea Batsch, 1788[2] | |
Vertebrates (/ˈvɜːrtəbrɪts, -ˌbreɪts/)[3] are animals with spinal cords and bony or cartilaginous backbones, including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The vertebrates consist of all the taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata (/ˌvɜːrtəˈbreɪtə/)[4] (chordates with backbones) and represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with currently about 69,963 species described.[5] Vertebrates comprise such groups as the following:
- jawless fish, which include hagfish and lampreys
- jawed vertebrates, which include:
- cartilaginous fish (sharks, rays, and ratfish)
- bony vertebrates, which include:
Extant vertebrates range in length from the frog species Paedophryne amauensis, at as little as 7.7 mm (0.30 in), to the blue whale, at up to 33 m (108 ft). Vertebrates make up less than five percent of all described animal species; the rest are invertebrates, which lack vertebral columns.
The vertebrates traditionally include the hagfish, which do not have proper vertebrae due to their loss in evolution,[6] though their closest living relatives, the lampreys, do.[7] Hagfish do, however, possess a cranium. For this reason, the vertebrate subphylum is sometimes referred to as "Craniata" when discussing morphology. Molecular analysis since 1992 has suggested that hagfish are most closely related to lampreys,[8] and so also are vertebrates in a monophyletic sense. Others consider them a sister group of vertebrates in the common taxon of craniata.[9]
- ^ Yang, Chuan; Li, Xian-Hua; Zhu, Maoyan; Condon, Daniel J.; Chen, Junyuan (2018). "Geochronological constraint on the Cambrian Chengjiang biota, South China" (PDF). Journal of the Geological Society. 175 (4): 659–666. Bibcode:2018JGSoc.175..659Y. doi:10.1144/jgs2017-103. ISSN 0016-7649. S2CID 135091168. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.
- ^ a b Nielsen, C. (July 2012). "The authorship of higher chordate taxa". Zoologica Scripta. 41 (4): 435–436. doi:10.1111/j.1463-6409.2012.00536.x. S2CID 83266247.
- ^ "vertebrate". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
- ^ "Vertebrata". Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
- ^ "Table 1a: Number of species evaluated in relation to the overall number of described species, and numbers of threatened species by major groups of organisms". IUCN Red List. 18 July 2019.
- ^ Ota, Kinya G.; Fujimoto, Satoko; Oisi, Yasuhiro; Kuratani, Shigeru (25 January 2017). "Identification of vertebra-like elements and their possible differentiation from sclerotomes in the hagfish". Nature Communications. 2: 373. Bibcode:2011NatCo...2..373O. doi:10.1038/ncomms1355. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 3157150. PMID 21712821.
- ^ Kuraku; et al. (December 1999). "Monophyly of Lampreys and Hagfishes Supported by Nuclear DNA–Coded Genes". Journal of Molecular Evolution. 49 (6): 729–35. Bibcode:1999JMolE..49..729K. doi:10.1007/PL00006595. PMID 10594174. S2CID 5613153.
- ^ Stock, D.; Whitt, G. S. (7 August 1992). "Evidence from 18S ribosomal RNA sequences that lampreys and hagfish form a natural group". Science. 257 (5071): 787–789. Bibcode:1992Sci...257..787S. doi:10.1126/science.1496398. PMID 1496398.
- ^ Nicholls, H. (10 September 2009). "Mouth to Mouth". Nature. 461 (7261): 164–166. doi:10.1038/461164a. PMID 19741680.