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vertebrates

[ (vur-tuh-bruhts, vur-tuh-brayts) ]

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Animals that have a spinal cord enclosed in a backbone.

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notes for vertebrates

The five traditional classes of vertebrates are amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, and reptiles. (Compare invertebrates.)

notes for vertebrates

Human beings are vertebrates.

Words nearby vertebrates

vertebral canal, vertebral column, Vertebrata, vertebrate, vertebrated, vertebrates, vertebration, vertebratus, vertex, vertical, vertical angle

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

How to use vertebrates in a sentence

Owen says that the thymus appears in vertebrates with the establishment of the lung as the main or exclusive respiratory organ.
Man And His Ancestor|Charles Morris
The only example among vertebrates is that of the beavers, members of the low order of rodents.
Man And His Ancestor|Charles Morris
There remain for consideration the lesser mammals and other vertebrates whose fecundatory instruments resemble those of mammifera.
The Natural Philosophy of Love|Remy de Gourmont
The amphioxus, the bridge between invertebrates and vertebrates, is not hermaphrodite.
The Natural Philosophy of Love|Remy de Gourmont

Of vertebrates, we may find the bones and teeth of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
The Principles of Stratigraphical Geology|J. E. Marr