What kind of animals are vertebrates

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Inspiring Environmental Stewardship. We're inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards. Visit Colorado's Invertebrate Zoo to see impressive toxic terrors. Invertebrates - animals without a backbone. Vertebrates - animals with a backbone. The animals have been divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of a backbone. The backbone is the observable feature that defines whether the animal is a vertebrate or an invertebrate. These groups are divided into smaller 'sub-groups'.

The class Aves includes all the birds. They also produce amniote eggs but usually give them greater protection from predators by laying them high off of the ground or in other relatively inaccessible locations. In the case of both reptiles and birds, the eggs are fertilized within the reproductive tract of females.

There are other striking similarities between reptiles and birds in their anatomies and reproductive systems. This is not surprising because birds are descendents of theropod dinosaurs two-legged mostly carnivorous dinosaurs. Birds class Aves Dogs, cats, bears, humans and most other large animals today are members of the vertebrate class Mammalia. All mammals conceive their young within the reproductive tract of the mother and, after birth, nourish them with milk produced by their mammary glands.

Mammals are heterodonts with strong jaws. That is to say, they have a variety of specialized teeth incisors, canines, premolars, and molars.

This allows them to chew their food into small pieces before swallowing it. Subsequently, they can eat any size plant or animal. Many reptiles must swallow their prey whole, which limits them to hunting smaller game. Like birds, mammals are endothermic , or warm blooded. They are able to maintain a relatively constant body temperature regardless of external environmental conditions mainly by using internal physiological mechanisms.

In other words , they are homeothermic , or stable in core body temperature, as a result of endothermy. All of the living species of insects, fish, reptiles, and amphibians are ectothermic , or cold blooded. They keep their body temperature in a normal range mainly by avoiding exposure to environmental temperature extremes. For instance, reptiles usually remain in shaded areas on hot days to prevent fatal overheating.

The most familiar amphibians are frogs, toads, and salamanders. When amphibians transform from juvenile to adult, they often undergo a significant change in diet.

Tadpoles, for example, are usually herbivorous, consuming periphyton or macrophytes, but adult frogs are carnivorous, feeding on animals such as insects, worms, snails, or nearly any other animal that they are capable of swallowing whole. Frog tadpoles are an important food source for some fish. In addition, aquatic birds and some reptiles such as aquatic snakes prey upon the adults.

Due to the dependence of amphibians on water and warmer temperatures, they are most active in the summer and often hibernate on land in the winter. Unlike amphibians, reptiles are largely a terrestrial group of animals.