Vertebrata
These are three of the vertebrate apomorphies.
What are an elaborate brain, cranium, vertebrae, lateral line system, sense organs, a two chambered heart, kidneys, liver, hemoglobin!?
This vertebrate apomorphy was lost in bony fish, but is still expressed in the bodies of sharks.
What is the heterocercal tail?
This apomorphy distinguishes bony fish from cartilaginous fish.
What are adenticulate scales, gas bladder, or bony operculum?
This is an easy way to tell frogs and salamanders apart.
What is the way that frog lack tails?
Archosauria includes birds, dinosaurs, and this group.
What are crocodilians?
These two kinds of jawless fish have circle mouths with Keratin teeth. One scavenges while the other is a parasite.
What are hagfish and lampreys?
Placoid scales have this texture.
What is a rough, tooth-like texture?
This subgroup is a surprising part of the "bony fish" taxa.
what are humans?
This is another way to describe the jumping movement of frogs.
What is saltatory locomotion?
Parental care, facultative bipedality, and this apomorphy define archosauria.
What is the four-chambered heart?
This is the adaptive significance of having jaws.
This structure helps ensure successful insemination of females in sharks, rays, and ratfish.
What are pelvic claspers?
This is the evolutionary origin of the gill arches in bony fish.
What are the pharyngeal bars of chordates?
These are apomorphies that permit tetrapods to live on land.
Feathers, a keeled sternum, short tail, hollow bones, and a few other unique apomorphies all allow birds to do this.
What is fly!
This vertebrate apomorphy allows animals to sense their surroundings in the water through vibrations.
What is the lateral line system?
This cartilaginous fish group can sense electric fields in the water using Ampullae of Lorenzini.
What are sharks and rays? (Elasmobranchs)
This rare fish has lobe fins, which are more similar to tetrapod limbs.
What is the coelacanth?
Feathers are modified from these reptile structures.
What are scales?
These are the functions of the vertebrae structure.
What are structure, flexion, and protection of the dorsal hollow nerve cord?
This unique apomorphy of ratfish (Holocephali) is still misunderstood.
What is the cephalic clasper?
Lungfish obtain oxygen through these two means.
What are gills and lungs?
The carapace and plastron are parts of the shell of this reptile.
A sharp curved beak is likely indicative of this kind of feeding strategy in birds.