chordate

[ kawr-deyt ]

adjective

1. belonging or pertaining to the phylum Chordata, comprising animals having a notochord, as the lancelets and tunicates, as well as all the true vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

noun

1. a chordate animal.

chordate

/ ˈkɔːˌdeɪt /

noun

1. any animal of the phylum Chordata, including the vertebrates and protochordates, characterized by a notochord, dorsal tubular nerve cord, and pharyngeal gill slits

adjective

1. of, relating to, or belonging to the Chordata

chordate

/ kôr′dāt′ /

1. Any of a large group of animals of the phylum Chordata, having at some stage of development a notochord (flexible spinal column) and nerve cord running along the back, a tail stretching above and behind the anus, and gill slits. Chordates probably evolved before the Cambrian Period and are related to the hemichordates, echinoderms, and chaetognaths. The vertebrates, tunicates, and cephalochordates are the three main groups of chordates.

Word History and Origins

Origin of chordate¹

First recorded in 1885–90; Chordata

Word History and Origins

Origin of chordate¹

C19: from Medieval Latin chordata; see chord ¹+ -ate ¹

Example Sentences

The C. intestinalis genome has been sequenced6, and a network of genes and regulatory molecules that provides the blueprint for the body plan of all chordate animals has been characterized in C. intestinalis7.

From Nature

Gee discusses how data from living and fossilized hemichordates and echinoderms have facilitated the search for the origins of the defining chordate anatomies.

From Nature

After finding that the creature had a primitive backbone, they could classify it as a chordate, which is a family of species that includes all vertebrates.

From New York Times

That gives us a glimpse of the early chordate ancestor, which lived around 600 million years ago.

From Nature

Having established a hazy picture of the earliest chordates, Gee focuses on building vertebrates and their defining features from the basic chordate body plan, for example through spectacular innovations in the vertebrate head.

From Nature