How to Use vertebrate in a Sentence

vertebrate

1 of 2 noun
Definition of vertebratenext
Synonyms for vertebratenext
  • Pterosaurs Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to take to the air.
    — Riley Black, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Mar. 2023
  • In 1962, the African clawed frog became the first cloned vertebrate.
    — Anne Fadiman, Harper’s Magazine , 10 Feb. 2023
  • The number of mammal and bird species varies from place to place, but these groups of vertebrates still span much of the world.
    — Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 1 Apr. 2018
  • Curt was a huge spine floating on a sea of vertebrates.
    — Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 Nov. 2023
  • Testosterone in male vertebrates is part of the steroid group of hormones.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 3 May 2023
  • Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight, adapting to the skies long before birds would do the same.
    — Brian Switek, Smithsonian, 14 Mar. 2018
  • Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to fly, and while some were quite small, others were enormous.
    — Curtis Brainard, Scientific American, 29 Sep. 2019
  • Our hands came from the forelimbs of land vertebrates, which derived from the pectoral fins of fish.
    — Frans De Waal, Discover Magazine, 31 May 2019
  • Frogs have the biggest eyes of any vertebrate in relation to their body size.
    — Popular Science, 1 Oct. 2020
  • The fossilized critter is an amniote—a land-dwelling vertebrate that lays eggs— and has four legs.
    — Rasha Aridi, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 Nov. 2021
  • In fact, sharks and their relatives were the first vertebrate predators on Earth.
    — Lauren Kent, CNN, 28 Nov. 2019
  • The building blocks for osteoderms might be in the heads of vertebrates, Dr. Stanley said.
    — Asher Elbein, New York Times, 24 May 2023
  • Zooming in on amphibians: Which is the smallest vertebrate in the world?
    — Grrlscientist, Forbes, 17 Feb. 2024
  • In other words: these vertebrate worms feed their offspring with milk from their butts.
    — Popular Science, 7 Mar. 2024
  • Like all vertebrates, salamanders have a structure called a pallium that sits near the front of the brain.
    — Quanta Magazine, 14 Feb. 2023
  • Whale sharks, or tiburón ballena as they’re known here, are the largest living non-mammalian vertebrate and largest shark species on the planet.
    — Krista Simmons, Sunset Magazine, 7 Oct. 2022
  • The strange, gruesome story of the Greenland shark, the longest-living vertebrate on Earth.
    — The New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2021
  • This housefly-size frog, Paedophryne amauensis, has snatched the record as the world’s smallest vertebrate.
    — Amy Barth, Discover Magazine, 16 Jan. 2013
  • But a very small portion of female vertebrates are able to produce an offspring all on their own.
    — Jason Bittel, Washington Post, 30 June 2019
  • All vertebrates have a spine composed of a string of vertebral segments, but species vary in their number and size.
    — Quanta Magazine, 18 Sep. 2023
  • And vertebrates dwelling elsewhere in the world might host other RNA viruses that have yet to be discovered.
    — Giorgia Guglielmi, Scientific American, 5 Apr. 2018
  • How can humans sustainably co-exist with one of the world’s largest vertebrates, the Asian elephant?
    — David L. Coddon, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 May 2023
  • Greenland sharks are the longest-living vertebrates in the world, according to NOAA.
    — Aspen Pflughoeft, Miami Herald, 23 Jan. 2024
  • The organs are the oldest preserved in three dimensions in any jawed vertebrate.
    — Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 15 Sep. 2022
  • The pterosaur is the world's oldest flying reptile and was the first vertebrate to develop flight through evolution, per CNN.
    — Devika Rao, The Week, 31 May 2023
  • While all mammals seem to age, other vertebrates, like reptiles, amphibians, and fish, have species that don't seem to age at all.
    — Sofia Quaglia, Discover Magazine, 20 Oct. 2023
  • In recent weeks, Portuguese and Spanish researchers have uncovered the vertebrate and ribs of the sauropod in the man's backyard.
    — Paul Best, Fox News, 26 Aug. 2022
  • These spotted fish, which are sharks, not whales, can measure longer than 30 feet and rank as the biggest nonmammal vertebrates on the planet.
    — Linda Lombardi, chicagotribune.com, 11 June 2019
  • Nor did anyone realize that dinosaurs still dwell among us in the form of birds, which continue to be the most diverse group of land vertebrates.
    — The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 1 Mar. 2017
  • For example, vertebrates’ walking tempos are set by circuits in their spines that fire without any conscious input from the brain.
    — Quanta Magazine, 11 Mar. 2024
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vertebrate

2 of 2 adjective
  • This is one of the highest rates of any vertebrate group.
    — David Shiffman, Scientific American, 24 May 2022
  • The project aims to be the most complete bird tree of life to date, and is the first to be done on a vertebrate animal group.
    — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 21 Apr. 2018
  • There are hundreds of open questions in the field of tiny vertebrate studies.
    — Mark D. Scherz, Quartz, 3 Apr. 2021
  • There are a subset of these vertebrate predators that have evolved these bony fangs on the lower jaw, which aren’t true teeth.
    — Sara Kiley Watson, Popular Science, 4 Apr. 2020
  • Do any other vertebrate groups measure up to cats in this way?
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2023
  • Researchers found that the wells drew 59 other vertebrate species, 57 of which were seen drinking from the equine waters.
    — Alex Fox, Smithsonian Magazine, 3 May 2021
  • Many people now have looked in many, many vertebrate tissues.
    — Steven Strogatz, Quanta Magazine, 27 July 2022
  • Parthenogenesis has been observed in more than 80 vertebrate species, about half of which are fish or lizards.
    — Corryn Wetzel, National Geographic, 25 Aug. 2020
  • It is believed to be the first time researchers have tried to relocate a vertebrate species to a new habitat because of climate change.
    — Yan Zhuang, New York Times, 12 Dec. 2022
  • Take the spine: all vertebrate creatures share an evolutionary history right back to the point at which the first nerve cord appeared.
    — Cathleen O'Grady, Ars Technica, 14 July 2017
  • Interestingly, the other vertebrate fliers of the Mesozoic, the pterosaurs, did not have a syrinx.
    — Michael B. Habib, Scientific American, 1 Jan. 2022
  • In reality, only one percent of the world's 1,300 bat species feed on vertebrate prey.
    — Kelli Bender, PEOPLE.com, 28 Oct. 2021
  • Taken together, both sites push the origin of vertebrate jaws and teeth back by almost 14 million years.
    — Asher Elbein, New York Times, 28 Sep. 2022
  • In line with what other researchers have observed in vertebrate creatures at play, young bees engaged more often with the balls than older ones.
    — Lars Chittka, Scientific American, 14 June 2023
  • The squash leaves shaded the soil and helped retain moisture while discouraging vertebrate pests with its prickly leaves.
    — Donna McClay, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2021
  • He was convicted on Sept. 7 on three counts of torturing and mutilating a vertebrate animal and faced up to two and a half years in jail.
    — Fox 19 Digital Staff, The Enquirer, 15 Sep. 2021
  • One of the greatest innovations of the vertebrate body plan, the neurocranium both protects the brain and helps to connect it to sensory organs, the mouth and more.
    — Matt Hrodey, Discover Magazine, 3 Oct. 2023
  • The first vertebrate animals to crawl onto land were relatives of the modern lungfish.
    — David George Haskell, Wired, 8 Mar. 2022
  • The Living Planet Index, the backbone of the report, measures the size of vertebrate populations.
    — Eric Roston, Bloomberg.com, 9 Sep. 2020
  • Their hands, for example, are probably the most specialized in all of the vertebrate world, with an immense fourth finger that supported the wing.
    — Michael B. Habib, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2019
  • Part of the story, Dunn said, may begin with fish—the most ancient vertebrate group that’s had its sour-sensing superpowers assessed and confirmed.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 8 Feb. 2022
  • The second 2016 study concluded that Tully should be grouped with vertebrates because the pigment granules in the eyes, called melanosomes, were arranged by shape and size much like vertebrate eyes.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 25 Apr. 2023
  • Not everyone agrees that the evolution of IRBP was crucial for vertebrate vision.
    — Byelizabeth Pennisi, science.org, 10 Apr. 2023
  • In total, Spinosaurus teeth made up nearly a third of the second site’s vertebrate fossils, an extremely unusual find.
    — Michael Greshko, National Geographic, 28 Apr. 2020
  • The problem, according to Mr. Bezzerides, is that the eyes of our vertebrate ancestors evolved to function underwater.
    — Adrian Woolfson, WSJ, 31 May 2021
  • This forest keeps alive a surprising diversity of life forms, with 7 percent of the planet’s plant species and 5 percent of vertebrate species living here.
    — Alejandro Manrique, Ars Technica, 10 Feb. 2023
  • Unlike hard bones and teeth, scientists rarely find brain tissue – which is soft – preserved in vertebrate fossils, according to the researchers.
    — Amarachi Orie, CNN, 2 Feb. 2023
  • The pterosaur Nyctosaurus may have had the most efficient wings—and thus the longest continuous soaring flight—of any vertebrate animal ever.
    — Michael B. Habib, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2019
  • The bulk of the industry does not actually seek to replace human consumption of vertebrate meat with insects.
    — Lars Chittka, Scientific American, 14 June 2023
  • According to the law, species include any subspecies of fish or wildlife or plants, and any distinct population segment of any species of vertebrate fish or wildlife which interbreeds when mature.
    — Zach St. George, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vertebrate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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