Tenaz Sands

Are all chordates vertebrates? Explain.

All chordates are not vertebrates because all of them do not have backbones. Chordates is a
phylum under the Kingdom ‘animalia’ which characteristically has a notochord (a hollow
neural tube). In some chordates, the notochord is replaced by the vertebrae or backbones
which are called vertebrates. In other chordates, the notochords are not replaced so they are
known as invertebrates. An example of an invertebrate is a tunicate belonging to the
subphylum ‘urochordata’ and a lancelet belonging to the cephalochordata subphylum.