text: what are the properties of vertebrates?   the properties all vertebrates share are that they are all chordates from the phylum chordata.  at some time in their life they have a notochord, a dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a muscular tail.    a notachord is a rod shape structure found in the embryos.  pharyngeal slit is used in feeding and found in the pharynx.  an endostyle is a longitudinal ciliated groove on the ventral wall of the pharynx which produces mucus to gather food particles.  chordata is broken down into three subpylums; urochordata, cephalochordata, and of course vertebrata.  the vertebrates are known as the animals with true back bones and spinal cord.  due to the vertebrates having a skeleton structure they are able to grow to larger sizes than most invertebrates.  lastly, all have the dorsal hollow nerve cord surrounded with cartilaginous or bony vertebrae with the notochord generally reduced which is not the case with the other two subpylums urochordata and cephalochrodata.    there are roughly about 50,000 species of vertebrates which fish make up 50% of them with just over 25,000 known species.  the rest are mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.