Introduction to Vertebrates

Although not the most numerous group of animals in either number of individuals or in number of taxa, the vertebrates are an endlessly fascinating group of animals. Vertebrates are fascinating partially because we are intimately familiar with them. In fact we ARE them. Our species, Homo sapiens, is included within the Vertebrata. Vertebrates are fascinating in part because they are easy to find. Many groups of organisms cannot be seen with the naked eye or reside in places inhospitable to humans, like the sea floor. We coexist with other vertebrates and are often quite aware of them in our environment. We have many biological, social, cultural and historical ties with vertebrates, more so than other groups. We have domesticated dogs and have used horses as a means of transporation. We have used carrier pigeons as a means of communicating over long distances. We use many products from bovids, like milk, as a means of nourishment. In some religions, cows are sacred, objects of reverence. Snakes certainly have a long history in the symbology of many religions.

Vertebrates have a long history on this earth of more than 500 million years, from the middle of the Cambrian till today. One of the lineages from the Cambrian has surivived till the present, the Agnatha, or jawless fish. The vertebrates show affinities with other chordates but share some characters that make them unique. Some have argued that many of the characters that describe vertebrates have been derived from the same set of cells, the neural crest cells, that appear early in development. Only vertebrates possess these cells. From neural crest cells are derived the cells that produce the skull and jaw bones.

While vertebrates have a long and interesting fossil record, unfortunately humans are quickly helping to add to the list of organisms that no longer exist. These extinctions reduce the diversity of life on the planet and destroy our ability to understand all aspects of biology. We hope to show you the diversity of vertebrates that has existed in the past and the diversity that exists today. We also hope to show how taken together vertebrates extinct and extant can help us understand a great amount about the forces that have shaped the evolution of our world and ourselves in the past and help us predict and understand the future.

Click on the buttons below to learn more about the Vertebrata. You can navigate deeper into the Vertebrate groups by selecting Systematics!