A chordate is a bilaterian animal belonging to the phylum Chordata. All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics that distinguish
The glass catfish (Kryptopterus vitreolus) is one of the few chordates with a visible backbone. The spinal cord is housed within its backbone.
Cephalochordate: lancelet. Pictured species: Branchiostoma lanceolatum
A skeleton of the blue whale, the largest animal, extant or extinct, ever discovered. Mounted outside the Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The largest blue whale ever reliably recorded measured 98ft (30m) long.
Tunicates are marine invertebrates belonging to the subphylum Tunicata. This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords. The subphylum
Clavelina moluccensis, the bluebell tunicate
Botrylloides violaceus showing oral tentacles at openings of buccal siphons
The star-shaped holes (Catellocaula vallata) in this Upper Ordovician bryozoan may represent a tunicate preserved by bioimmuration in the bryozoan skeleton.