1. VERTEBRATES and their Classification
Vertebrate Classes:
Pisces: (fish)
Agnatha (jawless fish)
Chondricthes (boneless fish
Osteicthes (boney fish)
Tetrapoda (four limbed creatures)
Amphibia
Reptilia
Aves
Mammalia

2. General Vertebrate Characteristics
Vertebrates typically have bilateral symmetry in their skeleton and in their muscular, respiratory, nervous, circulatory, and urogenital systems. Their two pairs of limbs are adapted for different uses, such as wings for flying or fins for swimming.
In most vertebrates, a hollow, jointed backbone and its upper extension, the cranium, protect the spinal cord and brain. Almost all young vertebrates have gill slits in their embryonic stage. In land vertebrates the gills develop into lungs. All vertebrates reproduce sexually, and males and females have distinct characteristics.

3. FISH CHARACTERISTICS Cold Blooded Live in water
Use gills instead of lungs
Usually have scales
Eggs have no shells
Eggs are laid in large quantities; no care is given to young

4. Pisces:Agnatha….Jawless fish
. The lamprey and hagfish, known as cyclostomes,
Jawless fishes obtain their food by sucking.
Jawless fish are parasites.
Lampreys are a “foreign invader” problem fish in the Great Lakes. How did this happen?

5. Pisces: Chondrichthes
The Chondrichthyes include sharks, skates, and rays, The skeletons of Chondrichthyes contain no bones but instead are made entirely of cartilage.
Sharks are voracious predators and powerful swimmers with well-developed paired fins and strong tails.

6. Pisces: Chondrichthes
Skates and rays have flattened bodies, and their pectoral fins are greatly expanded.
This is a Sawfish. They obtain food by using their long snouts to dig out bottom animals or to lash out against schooling fishes.

7. Pisces: Osteicthes…Bony Fish
This group is divided into the Actinopterygii and the Sarcopterygii. The Actinopterygii, or ray-finned fishes, have about 20,000 known species. The ray-finned fishes get their name from the fact that their paired fins are webs of skin supported by rays of bone. Most of these fish belong to the Teleostei group, which has the largest number of species among the vertebrates. Their complex jaw and associated muscles enable them to eat a wide range of foods. They are also highly prolific breeders, with a single female capable of producing up to 9 million eggs in one season.
Examples

8. Pisces: Osteicthes: bony fish
The Sarcopterygii, though smaller have fewer members.They were long thought to have become extinct, but in 1938 a representative of this group, a coelacanth, was caught off the coast of Africa. Since then others have been found in the Indian Ocean.
Living Coelecanth
Living Coelecanth
Coelecanth Fossil

9. Amphibian Characteristics
Cold Blooded
Part of the life cycle is spent on land, and part in water
Adults have lungs and yet may breathe through skin
Three chambered heart
Eggs are laid in water
There is no shell on eggs
Eggs are laid in large numbers, and no care is given to the young

10. Tetrapoda: Amphibians: Two Lives
Members of this class still spend the early part of their lives in water and return to it during their reproductive cycle.
The 3,000 species of modern amphibians are divided into frogs and toads (Anura), newts and salamanders (Urodela), and burrowers in the Gymnophiona group. The anuran skeleton is modified to make jumping possible.

11. Tetrapoda: Amphibians: Two Lives
The urodeles are the tailed amphibians. All of them resemble the most numerous members of this order the salamanders. Basically animals of the Northern Hemisphere, urodeles live in or near streams, and are sometimes found under rocks and logs. They have long tails, poorly developed legs, and smooth, moist skin.

12. Reptilian Characteristics
Cold blooded with three chambered heart
Air breathing
Covered with scales or plates
Feet have toes with claws
The excretory system can minimize water loss
Eggs are leathery, and can be laid in air or soil, rather than in water

13. Tetrapoda: Reptilia
The Reptilia class of vertebrates live their entire life span on dry land. This is made possible by the hard eggshell, which protects the egg from drying out. The egg contains food that sustains the developing young until it hatches.
The major reptile groups are turtles and tortoises, Squamata (lizards and snakes), and Archosaurs (now-extinct dinosaurs and modern-day alligators and crocodiles).

14. Tetrapoda;Reptilia: Turtles
About 250 species of turtle are found throughout the temperate and tropical regions of the world, including the major seas. In contrast to other reptiles, whose populations are confined largely to the tropics, turtles are most abundant in southeastern North America and southeastern Asia. They live in lakes, ponds, salt marshes, rivers, forests, and even deserts.
The carapace is made of backbone and ribs joined together with plates of bone. The plastron is fused with the breastbone. In hard-shell turtles the bone is covered with horny shields

15. Tetrapoda:Reptilia:Squamata: Lizards and Snakes
Lizards are widespread in the tropics where they occur in great variety from horned toads to the monitor lizard, which measures up to 13 feet (4 meters) in length, of the East Indies.
Snakes primary characteristics are lack of limbs; movement by undulating the body and tail; a highly flexible skull and jaw that allows them to swallow their prey whole; and, in some families of snakes, poison glands and hollow fangs.

16. Tetrapoda: Reptilia:Archosaurs: Crocodiles and Alligators
Modern-day alligators and crocodiles are the only surviving members of the Archosaurs. These amphibious reptiles use four limbs for locomotion. Alligators live in fresh water and crocodiles in salt water.
The term crocodilian is applied to any of the order Crocodilia alligators, caimans, and gavials, as well as true crocodiles. There are about 20 species of living crocodilians, all of which are lizardlike, egg-laying meat-eaters.

17. Tetrapoda: Aves (Birds)
Scientists have classified some 8,700 species of birds that inhabit the Earth today. The characteristic features of the class Aves include:
warm blooded with high speed metabolism and four chambered heart
feathers that form the wing surfaces of modified forelimbs, hollow bones,
air sacs distributed throughout the body,
a horn bill without any teeth,
lay a few eggs with hard shells, often incubate eggs and raise their young
Many birds eat grain and seeds. Lacking teeth, they have developed a grinding mechanism. They swallow grit or small pebbles, which are held in a gizzard, a part of the digestive tract. There the stony particles grind the seeds so they can be digested. Birds have well-developed nervous systems and demonstrate complex patterns of behavior in courtship, nest building, and rearing their young.

18. Bird Beaks
Bird beaks never have teeth though!!!

19. Mammalian Characteristics
warm blooded with four chambered heart
air breathing
bear live young and parents raise young
have hair or fur
sophisticated brains
nurse the young through mammary glands
an outer ear which collects sound
separate chest and abdominal cavities

20. Classes of Mammalia MONOTREMES
Monotremata. Duck-billed platypuses and spiny anteaters.
MARSUPIALS
Marsupialia. Kangaroos, wallabies, opossums, wombats, koalas.
PLACENTAL MAMMALS
Insectivora (insect eaters). Shrews, moles, hedgehogs.
Dermoptera. Colugos or flying lemurs.
Chiroptera. Bats.
Primates. Tree shrews, lemurs, monkeys, marmosets, great apes, humans.
Edentata. Sloths, armadillos, anteaters.
Pholidota. Pangolins or scaly anteaters.
Lagomorpha. Hares, rabbits, pikas.
Rodentia (gnawers). Mice, rats, squirrels, porcupines, beavers.
Cetacea. Dolphins, porpoises, whales.
Carnivora (flesh eaters). Cats, dogs, bears, weasels, hyenas, racoons, badgers.
Pinnipedia. Seals, sea lions, walruses.
Tubulidentata. Aardvarks.
Proboscidea. Elephants.
Hyracoidea. Hyraxes, dassies.
Sirenia. Manatees, sea cows, dugongs.
Perissodactyla (odd-toed hoofed animals). Horses, asses, zebras, tapirs, rhinoceroses.
Artiodactyla (even-toed hoofed animals). Pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, antelopes, alpacas, camels, deer, giraffes, hippopotamuses.

22. Mammalia: Tetrapoda: Monotreme
Native only to Tasmania and eastern and southern Australia, the platypus is the sole member of the mammal family Ornithorhynchidae.
It is one of two animals that form the order Monotremata (egg-laying mammals), the other being Australia's spiny anteater.
The platypus, also known as the duckbill, watermole, or duckmole, is a shy, reclusive animal that lives near lakes and streams.
The female has no nipples; instead, milk oozes through slits in her abdomen where it is licked up by the young.

23. Tetrapoda: Mammalia: Marsupials
Mammals that carry their young in an abdominal pouch during their early development are called marsupials. Soon after the marsupial ovum, or egg, is fertilized, the young are born in a premature state and crawl into the mother's pouch. There, nursing on milk from their mother's nipples, they complete their development.
Opossum

24. Mammalia: Tetrapoda: Placental Mammals

25. What is a Placental Mammal?
More than 95% of all mammals are placentals. The egg remains inside the mother and is fed via a placenta. The circulatory systems of the mother and embryo are never mixed. Nutrients and oxygen from the mother’s blood pass through the placenta into the developing embryo, and waste materials pass out.
Because the developing mammals get their nourishment directly from the mother, development is not limited to the amount of food that can be found in the egg.The longer gestation period or pregnancy, permits the formation of a complex brain and nervous system.