Vertebrate General
Vertebrates are a subphylum of this larger group, which also includes invertebrate species like tunicates.
What is Chordata?
These fish, such as sharks, rays, and skates, have skeletons made of cartilage, jaws, paired fins, and scales, and are predominantly marine
What are cartilaginous fish?
A protein found in the skin of tetrapods, including humans?
What is keratin?
The type of diet the majority of reptiles have.
What is carnivorous?
The term for the process by which birds keep their eggs warm while they develop
What is incubation?
The two defining characteristics of mammals that set them apart from other vertebrates.
What are mammary glands and body hair (or fur)?
The primary distinguishing feature of vertebrates, which houses and protects the spinal cord.
What is the vertebral column or backbone?
This group of fish includes the coelacanth and lungfish, and is characterized by their fleshy, lobed fins, which are thought to be the evolutionary precursors to land vertebrates' limbs.
What are lobed-finned fish?
The term for the life stage of amphibians that is very different from the adult form, often resembling a fish.
What is the larval stage or tadpole?
The only continent where reptiles are not found.
What is Antartica?
The adaptation that allows birds to have a lightweight body structure?
What are air-filled bones?
The name for a type of mammal that primarily feeds on plants, one that feeds on animals, and one that consumes both
What are herbivores (e.g., rabbits), carnivores (e.g., lions), and omnivores (e.g., bears)?
Vertebrates possess an endoskeleton made of these two materials.
What are bone and cartilage?
This is the group of fish that includes species like lampreys and hagfish, which lack jaws and scales, and instead have a circular mouth for sucking food.
What are Jawless fish?
This varies much less than that of fish, typically from ½ a centimeter to 1.5 meters (about 5 feet)
What is the range of lengths for amphibians?
The type of eggs reptiles produce that allow them to reproduce on land?
What are amniotic eggs?
The term for the behavior that birds engage in to attract a mate.
What is courtship?
The way mammals primarily generate heat to maintain their body temperature.
What is by keeping their metabolic rate high?
what are, Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals
These fish, such as tuna, bass, and clownfish, have fins supported by rays, making them the most diverse and numerous group of fish in both freshwater and marine environments.
What are Ray-finned fish?
This is a body cavity that receives waste from the digestive and excretory systems and gametes from the reproductive system.
What is the cloaca, and what functions does it serve in amphibians?
This group of reptiles is considered the top predators in their ecosystems, capable of preying on animals such as birds and deer.
What are crocodilians?
What the evolutionary ancestor of modern birds is believed to be
What are theropod dinosaurs?
The 4 types of mammalian teeth.
What are incisors, canines, premolars, and molars?
This type of reproduction involves embryos developing within eggs outside the mother’s body.
What is ovipary?
The largest group of fish, with species like salmon, trout, and goldfish, these fish have bone skeletons, jaws, paired fins, and scales.
What are Bony fish?
This is because they do not produce amniotic eggs, so their eggs must remain moist to prevent drying out.
Why do amphibians need to lay their eggs in water?
This important adaptation is what the amniotic egg provides for fully terrestrial vertebrates?
What is keeping the embryo moist and safe while it grows and develops?
The type of vertebrates birds are classified as, based on their ability to regulate body temperature
What are endothermic vertebrates?
The four chambers of a mammalian heart, responsible for circulating oxygenated and deoxygenated blood.
What are the left atrium, right atrium, left ventricle, and right ventricle?