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/ˈvɜːrtᵻbrᵻts/
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(“vertebrates” comprise all species of animals within the subphylum Vertebrata /-ɑː/ (“chordates with backbones”))
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(‘vertebrates’ represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum ‘Chordata’, with currently about 64,000 species described)
(‘Vertebrates’ include the ‘jawless fish’ and the ‘jawed vertebrates’, which include the ‘cartilaginous fish’ (‘sharks’ and ‘rays’) and the ‘bony fish’)
(a ‘bony fish’ clade known as the ‘lobe-finned fishes’ is included with ‘tetrapods’, which are further divided into ‘amphibians’, ‘reptiles’, ‘mammals’, and ‘birds’)
(extant ‘vertebrates’ range in size from the frog species Paedophryne amauensis, at as little as 7.7 mm (0.30 in), to the ‘blue whale’, at up to 33 m (108 ft))
(‘vertebrates’ make up less than 5% of all described animal species; the rest are ‘invertebrates’, which lack ‘vertebral columns’)
(the ‘vertebrates’ traditionally include the ‘hagfish’, which do not have proper ‘vertebrae’ due to their loss in ‘evolution’, though their closest living relatives, the ‘lampreys’, do)
(‘Hagfish’ do, however, possess a ‘cranium’)
(for this reason, the vertebrate subphylum is sometimes referred to as “Craniata” when discussing ‘morphology’)
(‘molecular analysis’ since 1992 has suggested that ‘hagfish’ are most closely related to ‘lampreys’, and so also are ‘vertebrates’ in a ‘monophyletic’ sense)
(others consider them a ‘sister group’ of ‘vertebrates’ in the common taxon of ‘craniata’)
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*🌈✨ *TABLE OF CONTENTS* ✨🌷*
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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥*we won the war* 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥