What is a vertebrate?

What is a vertebrate? Well, if you are coming over from the "What is an Invertebrate" tile defenders, then you have probably learned that a huge portion of the animal world is made of animals without backbones called invertebrates. Even though the invertebrate group is pretty massive, there is an even more well known and well studied group called the vertebrates. The vertebrates are kind of like the opposite of invertebrates, they all have back bones! Many of us have vertebrates living right in our own home, like dogs, cats, fish and even pet reptiles. And guess what defenders! You are a vertebrate as well because we too have back bones!

To date, there has been over 65,000 vertebrate species identified and believe it or not we are still discovering more every year.  There are currently 7 classes of living vertebrates, which I am assuming you may know, like, the reptiles, amphibians, mammals, birds, bony fish, cartilaginous fish and the jawless fishes. Some of them are incredibly rare and considered to be living fossils, like the Coelacanth.

We can go on and on about the vertebrates and invertebrates. In fact defenders, we have! We have created the Animal Kingdom. A fully interactive educational center for all defenders to learn about animals!  Be sure to check it out everyone!