EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Most species within the phylum Chordata are vertebrates, or animals with backbones (subphylum Vertebrata). Examples of vertebrate chordates include fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. A modern human-one species of mammal-is a familiar example of a chordate.

Detailed explanation-2: -The phylum chordata (animals with backbones) is divided into five common classes: fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds.

Detailed explanation-3: -The vertebrates have a vertebral column, something like the notochord. Vertebrates show all the characteristic features of the phylum Chordata, such as the notochord, dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits and post-anal tail.

Detailed explanation-4: -The closest relatives of the Chordates are the Hemichordates and Echinodermata, which together form the Ambulacraria. The Chordata and Ambulacraria together form the superphylum Deuterostomia.

Detailed explanation-5: -Phylum Chordata belongs to the Kingdom Animalia and includes all the vertebrates, i.e., animals with a backbone, and several invertebrates, i.e., organisms without a backbone. They possess a bilaterally symmetrical body and are divided into three different sub-phyla.