Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
Vertebrate
References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Images, Videos & Interactives
Illustration showing examples of vertebrates: a turtle for reptiles, a songbird for birds, a bluegill fish, a salamander for amphibians, and two mammals-a whale and a groundhog. Vertebrate species counts lamprey
Observe the hagfish's horny teeth and scaleless exterior covering a cartilaginous skeleton
southern stingray (Dasyatis americana or Hypanus americanus) Bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) swimming close to the sandy ocean floor in clear blue water. American paddlefish (Polyodon spathula) swimming underwater, showing its long, flat snout and streamlined body. mola pond turtle sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis)
At a Glance
default image
vertebrate summary
Quizzes
Sea otter (Enhydra lutris), also called great sea otter, rare, completely marine otter of the northern Pacific, usually found in kelp beds. Floats on back. Looks like sea otter laughing. saltwater otters
Animal Group Names
Lion (panthera leo)
Deadliest Animals Quiz
Young chimpanzee dressed in a shirt and sweater vest, scratching his head thinking. (primates)
Wild Words from the Animal Kingdom Vocabulary Quiz
Mute swan with cygnet. (birds)
Match the Baby Animal to Its Mama Quiz
The bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) is seen in Switzerland on December 2024
Animal Factoids
Related Questions

Vertebrate: References & Edit History

Additional Reading

Charles G. Crispens, Jr., The Vertebrates, Their Forms and Functions (1978); J.Z. Young, The Life of Vertebrates, 3rd ed. (1981); Libbie H. Hyman, Hyman’s Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy, 3rd ed., edited by Marvalee H. Wake (1979); Edwin H. Colbert, Evolution of the Vertebrates: A History of the Backboned Animals Through Time, 3rd ed. (1980); Alfred Sherwood Romer and Thomas S. Parsons, The Vertebrate Body, 6th ed. (1986); Leonard B. Radinsky, The Evolution of Vertebrate Design (1987); Robert L. Carroll, Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution (1988); and F. Harvey Pough, John B. Heiser, and William N. McFarland, Vertebrate Life, 3rd ed. (1989).

Malcolm T. Jollie

Article History

Type Description Contributor Date
Article title updated for style. Nov 06, 2026
Modified link of Web site: Biology LibreTexts - Vertebrates. Sep 18, 2026
Updated the number of living vertebrate species. Dec 15, 2025
Add new Web site: National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Vertebrate Reproduction. Oct 28, 2025
Media added. Sep 09, 2025
Add new Web site: Cell Press - Current Biology - Vertebrate Ageing: An Evolutionary Process with a Genetic Basis? Jul 28, 2025
Media added. Sep 26, 2024
Add new Web site: Palomar College - Classes of Vertebrates. Jul 30, 2024
Add new Web site: OpenStax - Concepts of Biology - Vertebrates. Jun 18, 2024
Add new Web site: University of Central Florida Pressbooks - General Biology - Introduction to Vertebrates. May 06, 2024
Add new Web site: PNAS - Vertebrates on the brink as indicators of biological annihilation and the sixth mass extinction. Feb 13, 2024
Add new Web site: Georgia Tech Biological Sciences - Organismal Biology - Animals: Vertebrates. Jul 03, 2023
Add new Web site: Biology LibreTexts - Vertebrates. Mar 29, 2023
Add new Web site: BMC - Zoological Letters - The phylum Vertebrata: a case for zoological recognition. Jan 05, 2023
Add new Web site: The Royal Society Publishing - Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - Vertebrate palaeophysiology. Nov 02, 2022
Corrected display issue. Nov 04, 2020
Corrected display issue. Apr 17, 2019
Add new Web site: Animal Corner - Vertebrates. Aug 09, 2016
Add new Web site: Animal Diversity Web - Vertebrata. May 23, 2014
Add new Web site: Buzzle.com - Vertebrate and Invertebrate. Mar 13, 2014
Add new Web site: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - Vertebrate. Feb 21, 2013
Add new Web site: Florida Museum of Natural History - Vertebrate. Feb 21, 2013
Added new Web site: How Stuff Works - Science - Vertebrates. Feb 06, 2009
Line art depicting representatives of the major vertebrate groups added. Jan 22, 2009
Added new Web site: Zephyrus - Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Enchanted Learning - Vertebrate. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: James Madison University - Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Kimball's Biology Pages - The Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Howard Hughes Medical Institute - Vertebrate Circulatorium. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: British Broadcasting Corporation - Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: University of California Museum of Paleontology - Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Tree of Life Project - Terrestrial Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Rader's Biology4Kids - Vertebrate. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Kidport.Com - Vertebrates. Sep 04, 2008
Added new Web site: Tree of Life Project - Terrestrial Vertebrates. Jun 25, 2008
Added new Web site: University of Miami - Vertebrate Evolution II - Amphibians and the Transition to Land. Jan 14, 2007
Added new Web site: Tree of Life Project - Terrestrial Vertebrates. Jan 14, 2007
Added new Web site: Wyoming Bioinformation Node's Species Atlas. Jun 28, 2006
Added new Web site: Wyoming Bioinformation Node's Species Atlas. Jun 28, 2006
Added new Web site: University of California Museum of Paleontology - Introduction to the Vertebrates. Jun 26, 2006
Added new Web site: Tree of Life Web Project - Terrestrial Vertebrates - Stegocephalians - Tetrapods and Other Digit-Bearing Vertebrates. Jun 23, 2006
Added new Web site: Tree of Life Web Project - Terrestrial Vertebrates - Stegocephalians - Tetrapods and Other Digit-Bearing Vertebrates. Jun 23, 2006
Article added to new online database. Jul 26, 1999
View Changes:
Article History
Revised:
By: