Vertebrates Flashcards
All have backbones, or vertebral columns, that help support their bodies.
True
Flexible rodlike structure which plays a role in the development of the nervous system
Notochord
The body of vertebrates is divided into two parts. They are?
Body and tail regions
What does the vertebrate have?
It has a distinct head, with a differentiated brain and three pairs of sense organs (nasal, optic, and otic [hearing])
What are the 5 main vertebrates?
Fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
They are thought to have emerged some 518 million years ago during the Cambrian Period of Earth’s history.
The first fishes
How many fishes found in the fresh and salt waters of the world?
More than 30,000 species
The range of fishes adult length
less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 meters (60 feet)
Weight of fishes
1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands of kilograms
Common fish reproduction method
lay a large number of small eggs that are fertilized and scattered outside of the body
They usually remain suspended in open water
Pelagic fishes
Etymology of Amphibian
Amphibious
What does amphibious mean?
living a double life
From what and when amphibians evolved?
from fully aquatic tetrapods—(which were essentially “limbed fish”) who descended from lobe-finned fish—sometime between the Early Devonian Period (which began 419 million years ago) to the Early Pennsylvanian Subperiod (which began 323 million years ago).
What is the double strategy of amphibians?
Land and aquatic mode of existence
What are the 3 living groups of amphibians (7,300 species)?
caecilians, salamanders, and anurans [frogs and toads]
They are air breathing vertebrates
Reptiles
They have internal fertilization, amniotic development (in which the embryo develops within a set of protective extra-embryonic membranes—the amnion, chorion, and allantois), and epidermal scales covering part or all of their body
Reptiles
Major groups of reptiles (8,700 species)
turtles, tuataras, lizards and snakes, and crocodiles
At what time period did the reptiles evolved into amphibians?
Pennsylvanian subperiod
They make up any of the 9,600 living species unique in having feathers, the major characteristic that distinguishes them from all other animals
Birds
They are warm-blooded vertebrates more related to reptiles than to mammals, have a four-chambered heart (as do mammals), forelimbs modified into wings (a trait shared with bats), a hard-shelled egg, and keen vision.
Birds
Therapod dinosaurs
a diverse group of carnivorous “lizard-hipped” dinosaurs
How many species are there in mammals?
5,000 species
This mamma’s young have a longer developmental period within the uterus
Placental mammals
In this mammal type, the relatively undeveloped young are carried in a pouch, where they attach themselves to their mother’s nipple until they become fully developed.
Marsupials
This mammal differ from other mammals in that they lay eggs which hatch.
Monotreme mammals (that is, the platypus and echidna)
