vertebrates
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Human beings are vertebrates.
The five traditional class es of vertebrates are amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, and reptiles. (Compare invertebrates.)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tetrapods are vertebrates with limbs, including humans, that eventually made the transition from water to life on land.
From Science Daily • Mar. 12, 2026
A 2023 analysis of roughly 8,000 amphibian species found that two out of five are threatened with extinction, making amphibians the most endangered group of vertebrates.
From Science Daily • Mar. 9, 2026
Pantylids represent an early stage in the evolution of vertebrates on land.
From Science Daily • Feb. 11, 2026
It allows scientists to screen for all known viral infections in vertebrates, including viruses carried by bats.
From Science Daily • Feb. 1, 2026
The body plans of vertebrates depend on this property: if hemoglobin’s capacity to deliver oxygen to distant sites was disrupted, our bodies would be forced to be small and cold.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
