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The body, or axis, of a vertebra. See Vertebra.

The typical pentadactyloid limb of the higher vertebrates.

group of moldings, common in Norman architecture. Chevron bones (Anat.), The V-shaped subvertebral arches which inclose the caudal blood vessels in some animals.

Having a narrow, projecting chest, caused by forward curvature of the vertebral column.

orming the harder part of the outer integument of insects, crustacea, and various other invertebrates; entomolin.

ar cartilage, cartilaginous; as, the chondrocranium, the cartilaginous skull of the lower vertebrates and of embryos.

A comprehensive division of animals including all Vertebrata together with the Tunicata, or all those having a dorsal nervous cord.

The lowest group of vertebrates; -- so called from the cirri around the mouth; the Leptocardia. See Amphioxus.

The end of the vertebral column beyond the sacrum in man and tailless monkeys. It is composed of several vertebræ more or less consolidated.

A comprehensive group of Invertebrata, mostly marine, comprising the Anthozoa, Hydrozoa, and Ctenophora. The name implies that the stomach and body cavities are one. The group is sometimes enlarged so as to include the sponges.

To twist, or twist together; to turn awry; to bend; to distort; to wrest. The vertebral arteries are variously contorted. Ray. Kant contorted the term category from the proper meaning of attributed. Sir W. Hamilton.

One of the corneas of a compound eye in the invertebrates. Carpenter.

ammals the red corpuscles are circular, but in the camels, birds, reptiles, and the lower vertebrates generally, they are oval, and sometimes more or less spherical in form. In Amphioxus, and most invertebrates, the blood corpuscles are all white or colorless. -- White blood corpuscles (Physiol.), rounded, slightly fl…

A comprehensive division of the Vertebrata, including all those that have a skull.

clude the old red sandstone of Great Britain. They contain, besides plants and numerous invertebrates, the bony portions of many large and remarkable fishes of extinct groups. See the Diagram under Geology.

The dorsal transverse, or tubercular, process of a vertebra. See Vertebra.

Having the tail fin divided into two equal parts by the notochord, or end of the vertebral column; protocercal. See Protocercal.

The lower side of the body of some invertebrates, especially when used for locomotion, when it is often called a creeping disk.

A group of wormlike invertebrates having, along the sides of the body, branchial openings for the branchial sacs, which are formed by diverticula of the alimentary canal. Balanoglossus is the only known genus. See Illustration in Appendix.

Arising from the centrum of a vertebra. Owen.