Their immune systems, for example, while not as developed as those of vertebrates, seem to be more sophisticated than that of C. elegans.
For reasons that lie deep in the evolutionary history of the vertebrates, the right hemisphere deals with sensory input from the left-hand side of the body, and vice versa.
These kidneys have turned out to contain structures called nephrostomes tiny funnel-shaped ducts that are typical of aquatic vertebrates, but unknown in other mammalian embryos.
In spite of their small area, they have packed within them, as endemic species found nowhere else, more than 50% of all plant species and more than 42% of all vertebrates.
FORBES: Conservation International: Stemming the Tide of Environmental Crises, Part Two
Those toxins can affect the central nervous systems of fish and other vertebrates, causing the animals to die.
Nonetheless, from September 2009 to April 2011 workers and observers have recorded the injury or death of 1, 027 vertebrates--including 7 bettongs, 59 golden bandicoots and 54 spectacled hare-wallabies.
Insects, clams, trilobites and plants are good buys, and rarer ones have as much chance of accruing in value as vertebrates.
Although extremely rare in vertebrates, parthenogenesis (out of the Greek for "virgin birth") occurs in a number of lower animals.
BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Captive shark had 'virgin birth'
In today's world, the giant panda and the mole are anomalies among vertebrates: both have a second thumb, giving them a total of 12 digits.
In February, a group led by Dario Valenzano of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, showed that the effect applies in vertebrates, too.
And, while copia and its close relatives are not normally found in anything with more backbone than a reptile, its activities may hold clues about the behaviour of some of the other, more complicated, transposable elements that are found in those more complicated vertebrates, the mammals and the birds.
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