VETREBRATE

• Domain: Eukaryote
• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum:
• Porifera
• Cnidaria
• Platyhelminthes
• Annelida
• Mollusca
• Arthropoda
• Chordata
• Subphylum Cephalochordata (Acraniata) –
(lancelets; 30 species)
• Subphylum Vertebrata (Craniata) (vertebrates –
animals with backbones; 66,100+ species)
Four Chordate Hallmarks
• Notochord: is a flexible, rodlike structure, extending the length of the
body; it is the first part of the endoskeleton to appear in the embryo
• Single, dorsal, tubular nerve cord: In vertebrates the anterior end
becomes enlarged to form a brain
• Pharyngeal pouches: internal gills
• Postanal tail: A postanal tail, together with somatic musculature and
the stiffening notochord, provides the motility that larval tunicates and
amphioxus need for their free-swimming existence
Ancestry and Evolution of the Chordates
• Group Protochordata (Acrania)
• Subphylum Urochordata (Tunicata)

• Subphylum Cephalochordata (example: Amphioxus)

• Group Craniata
• Subphylum Vertebrata
Vertebrates are classified into 7 classes based on their anatomical
and physiological features:

1. Mammals (Class Mammalia)

2. Birds (Class Aves)
3. Reptiles (Class Reptilia)
4. Amphibians (Class Amphibia)
5. Bony fishes (Class Osteichthyes)
6. Cartilaginous fishes (Class Chondrichthyes)
7. Jawless fishes (Class Agnatha)
 1. Mammals (Class Mammalia)

This class of organisms have the ability to

regulate their body temperature irrespective of
the surrounding ambient temperature.
Therefore, mammals are called endothermic
animals and it includes humans and platypuses.
Characteristics Of Mammals
• Mammals are warm-blooded animals who give birth to their younger
ones.
• They are the most dominant form of animals found in almost all
types of habitats.
• They have mammary glands that help them produce milk to feed
their younger ones
• Their skin possesses oil glands (sebaceous glands) and sweat glands
(sudoriferous glands).
• The fur of hair throughout the body which helps animals adapt to
their environment.
• The mammals respire through lungs.
• Mammals have a four-chambered heart.
• The brain is well developed divided into cerebrum, cerebellum and
medulla.
• The mammals can lay eggs also. They are known as viviparous.
Flying mammals
Flying mammals
Platypus

The platypus is a duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed, egg-laying

aquatic creature native to Australia. The male of the species is also one
of the world’s few venomous mammals! Equipped with sharp stingers
on the heels of its hind feet, the male platypus can deliver a strong
toxic blow to any approaching foe.
 2. Birds (Class Aves):

From a biological perspective, birds are dinosaurs

(more aptly called avian dinosaurs). This class of
organisms are characterised by feathers, toothless
beaks and a high metabolic rate. Furthermore,
members of class Aves lay hard-shelled eggs.
Shoebill stork
• Balaeniceps rex
Related with Stork
(Bangau)
• Size: 1-1.5 meters (height);
wing span 2.4 m
• Shoebills are largely
piscivorous but are assured
predators of a considerable
range of wetland
vertebrates.
• The population is
estimated at between
5,000 and 8,000
individuals, the majority of
which live in swamps in
South Sudan, Uganda,
eastern Democratic
Republic of the Congo, and
Zambia
An example of incorrectly placed homologous elements in the
top. Wings would place birds and pterosaurs together but in
fact birds are more closely related to T. rex. This means that
wings appear more than once and are not a result of a
common ancestor
• Similarity does not always
reflect common ancestry,
however. Independent
evolutionary origins of similar
features on different lineages
produce patterns of similarity
among organisms that do not
reflect common descent
• Character similarity that
misrepresents common
descent is called
nonhomologous similarity or
homoplasy.
• Example: wings of birds, bats
and insects
Paraphyly: A group descending from a common ancestor that
doesn’t include all descendents of that common ancestor
Note: Although lineage B is monophyletic at h, B is paraphyletic
because it doesn’t include g, whose descendents are also in A
 3. Reptiles (Class Reptilia):

Reptiles include tetrapods such as snakes, crocodiles,

tuataras and turtles. The characteristic feature of reptiles
is that they are ectothermic in nature. Snakes are still
considered tetrapods though they have no visible limbs.
This is due to the fact that snakes evolved from ancestors
that had limbs.
Varanus komodoensis
• Komodo dragons have thrived
in the harsh climate of
Indonesia's Lesser Sunda
Islands for millions of years
• Komodo dragons will eat
almost anything, including
carrion, deer, pigs, smaller
dragons, and even large water
buffalo.
• In 1980, Indonesia
established Komodo National
Park to protect the Komodo
dragon and its habitat.
Tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus)
• Tuatara are a rare reptile found only
in New Zealand. They are the last
survivors of an order of reptiles that
thrived in the age of the dinosaurs.
• Their diet consists primarily of
invertebrates
• Tuatara have one of the slowest
growth rates of any reptile. They
keep growing until they are about
35 years old. A tuatara’s average life
span is about 60 years but they
probably live up to 100 years.
• Tuatara are the only surviving
members of the
order Sphenodontia.
 4. Amphibians (Class Amphibia):

Amphibians include ectothermic tetrapods such as

frogs toads and salamanders. The distinguishing
feature that separates amphibians from reptiles is
their breeding behaviour. Most amphibians need a
body of water to breed as their eggs are shell-less.
Furthermore, they undergo metamorphosis where
the young ones transform from fully-aquatic larval
form (with gills and fins) to terrestrial adult form.
 5. Bony fishes (Class Osteichthyes):

This class of fishes is characterized by their

skeleton which is composed primarily of bone
rather than cartilage (such as sharks). Class
Osteichthyes is also the largest class of
vertebrates today.
Subclass Neopterygii (modern bony fishes)
• Neopterygii includes the
Holostei (ray-finned bony
fish) and the Teleostei
(Greek: teleios "complete" +
osteon "bone")
Superclass
Gnathostomata
Class Sarcopterygii:
Lobe-finned fishes
• Ten extinct orders and three
living orders containing the
coelacanth, Latimeria
chalumnae, and three
genera of lungfishes:
Neoceratodus, Lepidosiren,
and Protopterus
Structural and Functional Adaptations of Fishes
• Locomotion in Water
• Neutral Buoyancy and the Swim Bladder
• Respiration
• Migration
• Eels are catadromous (Gr. kata, down, + dromos, running),meaning that
they spend most of their lives in fresh water but migrate to the sea to
spawn
• Salmon are anadromous (Gr. anadromous, running upward); that is, they
spend their adult lives at sea but return to fresh water to spawn
• Reproduction and Growth
• Oviparous and ovoviviparous
• Sequential hermaphroditism (called dichogamy in botany)
is a type of hermaphroditism that occurs in many fish,
gastropods, and plants
• In animals, the different types of change are
• male to female (protandry or protandrous hermaphroditism),
• female to male (protogyny or protogynous hermaphroditism),
• bidirectional (serial or bidirectional hermaphroditism)
6. Cartilaginous fishes (Class Chondrichthyes):
As the name suggests, this class is characterized by the
cartilaginous skeleton. Members include sharks, rays,
skates and sawfish. Some sharks such as the massive
Greenland shark can live for several centuries. A specimen
that was tagged in 2016 was found to be at least 273 years
old.
Subclass Elasmobranchii (Shark and Rays)
Subclass Holocephali
(chimaeras, or
ghostfish)

• The approximately 30
species of chimaeras (ky-
meer´uz; L.monster),
distinguished by such
suggestive names as ratfish,
rabbitfish, spookfish, and
ghostfish, are remnants of a
group that diverged from
the earliest shark lineage,
which originated at least
360 million years ago
(Devonian or Silurian
periods of the Paleozoic).
Superclass Gnathostomata
Class Actinopterygii: Ray-finned fishes

• Subclass Chondrostei
(chondrostean ray-finned
fishes)
• Subclass Neopterygii
(modern bony fishes)
Subclass Chondrostei (chondrostean ray-finned
fishes)
• Two chondrostean lineages survive today:
• the sturgeons of Eurasia and North America,
• the paddlefish of North America and China.
 7. Jawless fishes (Class Agnatha):

These are very primitive fishes that have not

changed much from fossil records for millions of
years. They have a jawless, circular mouth with rows
of small sharp which aid in holding and feeding on
other fishes. Most members of this class are
parasites and scavengers.
Superclass Agnatha: Jawless Fishes
Hagfishes: Class Myxini
Lampreys: Class Cephalaspidomorphi