What is a vertebra, vertebrae, vertebrate, and Vertebrata?

A vertebra is bone that is part of an animal or human spine. The spine is also called a spinal column or backbone.

Vertebrae are several bones (plural) that form the spine.

A vertebrate is an animal with a spine. The plural is vertebrates.

The subphylum Vertebrata includes all animals in the world that have a spinal column.

Vertebrates include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Invertebrata includes all the animals in the world that do not have a spinal column (‘in’ means without).

Invertebrates include insects, arachnids (spiders), molluscs (snails), crustaceans (crabs), worms, coral, starfish, sponges, and jellyfish.