Vertebrate Fossils

Vertebrate Fossils
For Sale

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Visit these fossil dealer shops currently stocking vertebrate fossils:

EDCOPE Enterprises Stonerelic

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About Vertebrate Fossils

A vertebrate is an animal with a backbone, which incidentally comprises only about 5% of all described animal species. Vertebrates are formally contained in subphylum Vertebrata, the largest subphylum of Phylum Chordata that fishes, dinosaurs, reptiles, and of course mammals including humans. For the organization of taxa in Fossil Mall, vertebrate constitutes a moniker for anything not included in invertebrates or any other specific category such as fish fossils, dinosaur and reptile fossils, and so forth. An often used simple taxonomy for Subphylum Vertebrata comprises seven paraphyletic classes: Agnatha (jawless fish), Chondrichthyes (cartilaginous fishes), Osteichthyes (bony fishes), Amphibia (amphibians), Reptilia (reptiles that include dinosaurs), Aves (birds that are descended from and considered a type of dinosaur), and Class Mammalia (mammals).

Vertebrate evolution can be dated to a time known as the Cambrian Explosion some 525 million years ago. The fossil record shows that this Cambrian period was when most animal phyla first appeared. The earliest known vertebrates are thought to be the basal chordates Myllokunmingia and Haikouichthys, both coming from the lower Cambrian Chengjiang Maotianshan Shales. Jawed vertebrates appear in the Ordovician fossil record, and become common in the Devonian, a period often called the age of fishes. The two groups of bony fishes, the actinopterygii and sarcopterygii, evolved and became common in the Devonian, while jawless fishes except lampreys and hagfish became extinct. Transitional animals between fish and amphibians first appear in the Devonian fossil record.