as in animals
biology
an animal that has a backbone
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of vertebrates
If researchers want to understand what the earliest jawed vertebrates may have looked like developmentally?
—
Melissa Cristina Márquez,
Forbes.com,
18 June 2026
At a time when the Earth was bare, when there were no vertebrates, no trees, no leaves, no flowering plants, and no plants with seeds, millipedes were feeding on decaying mosses, decomposed slime, and primordial gunk.
—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
13 June 2026
During the Early Devonian Period, life on land was still relatively new, and many of the ancestors of modern vertebrates had yet to emerge from the water.
—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
10 June 2026
In his lab, which studies the exchange of gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide between vertebrates and their environments, Damsgaard’s team used microsensors to measure oxygen levels in the retinas of zebra finches, pigeons, and chickens.
—
Yasemin Saplakoglu,
Quanta Magazine,
13 May 2026
The sharks’ resilience to aging could help scientists better understand longevity in vertebrates, including humans.
—
Jeanna Bryner,
Scientific American,
4 May 2026
Rewriting the Story of Ancient Cretaceous Oceans For decades, the narrative of prehistoric oceans has centered on massive vertebrates as the dominant predators.
—
Ryan Brennan,
Kansas City Star,
24 Apr. 2026
The evolutionary arms race A highly intelligent, 19-meter-long cephalopod actively hunting and crushing prey suggests that the Cretaceous evolutionary arms race wasn’t entirely dominated by vertebrates.
—
Jacek Krywko,
ArsTechnica,
24 Apr. 2026
Melissa Cristina Márquez,
Forbes.com,
18 June 2026
At a time when the Earth was bare, when there were no vertebrates, no trees, no leaves, no flowering plants, and no plants with seeds, millipedes were feeding on decaying mosses, decomposed slime, and primordial gunk.
—
Maria Mocerino,
Interesting Engineering,
13 June 2026
During the Early Devonian Period, life on land was still relatively new, and many of the ancestors of modern vertebrates had yet to emerge from the water.
—
Ashley Vega,
PEOPLE,
10 June 2026
In his lab, which studies the exchange of gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide between vertebrates and their environments, Damsgaard’s team used microsensors to measure oxygen levels in the retinas of zebra finches, pigeons, and chickens.
—
Yasemin Saplakoglu,
Quanta Magazine,
13 May 2026
The sharks’ resilience to aging could help scientists better understand longevity in vertebrates, including humans.
—
Jeanna Bryner,
Scientific American,
4 May 2026
Rewriting the Story of Ancient Cretaceous Oceans For decades, the narrative of prehistoric oceans has centered on massive vertebrates as the dominant predators.
—
Ryan Brennan,
Kansas City Star,
24 Apr. 2026
The evolutionary arms race A highly intelligent, 19-meter-long cephalopod actively hunting and crushing prey suggests that the Cretaceous evolutionary arms race wasn’t entirely dominated by vertebrates.
—
Jacek Krywko,
ArsTechnica,
24 Apr. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vertebrates
Noun
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The ranch is home to a couple of hundred animals, including impalas, Nubian ibexes and an antelope found in Central Africa.
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Dogs Inherited The ‘Wolf Pack’ Obligation Wolves are what biologists call obligate social hunters, that is, animals whose survival depends not just on being with others, but on coordinating with them.
Noun
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What happens in a world where young people are always rendered as creatures of the present, rather than also existing in the past?
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Coffin co-directed four of those movies and voices every last one of the yellow creatures himself.
Noun
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Its outer space is filled with cosmic detritus, mean characters and cute critters.
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And critters love to set up inside intake valves, breaking boats’ cooling systems, Hamm noted.
Noun
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Other applications might include robotics, such as adaptive robotic quadrupeds.
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Interdiction of humans, that is, not quadrupeds.
Noun
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There be beasties beyond US Route 93, bigger than my vision could handle.
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My bathtub seems to be a place these cute beasties like to hang out.
Cite this Entry
“Vertebrates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vertebrates. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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