vertebrate

/'və:tibrit/

Thân thiện

A biologist points to the backbone of a vertebrate skeleton.

Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Having a backbone or spinal column: Describes an animal that possesses a vertebral column (spine), a defining characteristic of a major group within the animal kingdom.
2. Noun:
   • An animal having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium: A member of the subphylum Vertebrata, characterized by an internal skeleton with a backbone.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Birds, fish, and humans are all vertebrate organisms.
  • The museum's exhibit focused on the evolution of vertebrate life.
• Noun:
  • A shark is a vertebrate, not an invertebrate like a jellyfish.
  • The fossil belonged to an ancient vertebrate.

Advanced Usage

• "Vertebrate paleontology": The scientific study of fossil vertebrates.
  • She specialized in vertebrate paleontology, focusing on prehistoric mammals.
• Used in formal, scientific, and educational contexts to classify animals.

Variants and Related Words

• Vertebrata (n): The scientific subphylum name for all vertebrates.
• Invertebrate (n/adj): The antonym; an animal lacking a backbone.
• Vertebral (adj): Pertaining to the vertebrae or spinal column.
  • The patient suffered a vertebral injury.

Synonyms

• Chordate (in a broad zoological sense, though not all chordates are vertebrates).
• Craniate (a term emphasizing the presence of a skull).

Antonyms

• Invertebrate: An animal without a backbone.

Học thuật

Adjective

1. having a backbone or spinal column
   • fishes and amphibians and reptiles and birds and mammals are verbetrate animals

Noun

1. animals having a bony or cartilaginous skeleton with a segmented spinal column and a large brain enclosed in a skull or cranium

Từ đồng nghĩa

• craniate