The phylum Choradata contains all animals that have, at one point or another during their lives, have had a hollow nerve cord and a notochord. This is a flexible rod that is in between the nerve cord and the digestive track. The phylum Choradata is an extremely diverse phylum, and yet the most recognizable. The phylum contains about 43, 700 species, most of which are a part of the sub phylum Vertebrata, making it the third-largest phylum in the animal kingdom. The phylum Chhoradata is divided up into three subphylum’s; Urochordata, Cephalachordata, and Verebrata. Lions fall in to the Verebrata subphylum because they have a backbone that containing an interlocking vertebrae and a skull enclosing a brain. These two features help to protect the central nervous system, it also gives support and structure to the body. This endoskeleton give them an advantage over all animals because, it allows them to move fast and swiftly.
All Choradata's at some point in their life have these four charasterisics:
A. Notochord, or a rod of vacuolated cells, encased by a firm sheath that lies ventral to the neural tube in vertebrate embryos and some adults.
B. Hollow nerve cord that lies dorsal to the notochord
C. Pharyngeal pouches
D. Endostyle - elongated groove in the pharynx floor of protochordates that may develop as the thyroid gland in chordates
All Choradata's at some point in their life have these four charasterisics:
A. Notochord, or a rod of vacuolated cells, encased by a firm sheath that lies ventral to the neural tube in vertebrate embryos and some adults.
B. Hollow nerve cord that lies dorsal to the notochord
C. Pharyngeal pouches
D. Endostyle - elongated groove in the pharynx floor of protochordates that may develop as the thyroid gland in chordates