Vertebrates
Animals with a backbone, in five groups.
Feel your back
Run a finger down the middle of your back. You can feel a row of bones.
What do you think this backbone does for the body?
What this lesson covers
The idea
Vertebrates have a backbone (vertebral column) that supports the body and protects the brain and spinal cord, allowing larger size, efficient movement and complex organ systems; they form five groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.
Feel your back
Run a finger down the middle of your back. You can feel a row of bones.
What do you think this backbone does for the body?
- Supports the body and protects the brain and spinal cord
- Lets the body make its own food
- Lets water flow through pores
What a backbone does
Open each tab.
The backbone matters
The vertebral column is the mark of vertebrates. It supports the body, protects the brain and spinal cord, and allows larger size, efficient movement and complex organ systems.
Vertebrates have a backbone (vertebral column) that supports the body and protects the brain and spinal cord, allowing larger size, efficient movement and complex organ systems; they form five groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.
Notes
Vertebrates have a backbone that supports the body and protects the brain and spinal cord; they form five groups: fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals.
Check yourself
How many groups of vertebrates does the book list?
Answer: 5
The five groups are fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
Which two organs does the backbone protect, as the book mentions?
Which of these does an internal backbone allow?
Which is one of the five groups of vertebrates?
- The brain and the spinal cord — correct. Yes!
- The stomach and the skin. The book names vital organs such as the brain and the spinal cord.
- The nerve cord and the shell. A nerve cord is found in annelids and a shell in many molluscs.
- Fixing the animal in one place. The backbone allows efficient movement.
- A larger body size — correct. Yes!
- A hard external skeleton. The backbone is an internal skeletal structure.
- Cnidarians. Cnidarians are invertebrates.
- Echinoderms. Echinoderms lack a notochord and are invertebrates.
- Reptiles — correct. Yes!