Chordates

The Vertebrate: Glossary - Provides a comprehensive list of definitions of the technical terms likely to be met when studying the vertrebates.
http://www.palaeos.com/Vertebrates/Lists/Glossary/Glossary.html

Animal Organ Systems and Homeostasis - Homeostasis describes the physical and chemical parameters that an organism must maintain to allow proper functioning of its component cells, tissues and organs.
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookANIMORGSYS.html

Bone - Article from Wikipedia describing the characteristics, functions and types of bone and how bone is formed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone

Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology - Devoted to the study of terrestrial vertebrates in the Pacific northwest. Offers publications and reference data.
http://www.snwvb.org/

Museum of Vertebrate Zoology Collections - Searchable database of specimens that includes over 50,000 tissue samples for use in molecular analyses.
http://mvz.berkeley.edu/

The Integument and its Derivatives - These notes cover the dermis and epidermis including skin, beaks, nails, hooves, horns, hair, feathers, scales and teeth.
http://www.zoology.ubc.ca/courses/bio204/lab5_frameset.htm

Chordata - Information on the invertebrate members of the phylum Chordata, what they have in common, and the characteristics of the two subphyla, Urochordata and Cephalochordata.
http://www.bumblebee.org/invertebrates/CHORDATA.htm

Department of Vertebrate Zoology - Information on the research and programs being undertaken at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.
http://vertebrates.si.edu/

The Vertebrates - Notes on the classification structure of the Vertebrates with a cladogram to review the evolutionary relationships of the craniata.
http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/V/Vertebrates.html

Infrared Zoo - Uses infrared photography to show the differences between warm and cold blooded animals.
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/image_galleries/ir_zoo/index.html

The Society for Experimental Biology (SEB) - SEB membership is open to scientists world-wide and the Animal Section is a thriving community of enthusiastic scientists working across diverse scientific fields.
http://www.sebiology.org/

Molecular Patterns of Sex Determination in the Animal Kingdom: a Comparative Study of the Biology of Reproduction - Abstract from an article studying a variety of regulatory mechanisms that determine the sex of offspring in the animal kingdom.
http://www.rbej.com/content/4/1/59

Biological Diversity: Animals - Outlines the evolutionary history of animal groups from the simple coelomates to the chordates and the various vertebrate classes, with diagrams and photographs.
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookDiversity_9.html

Skulls: Structure and Function - Though primarily designed to protect the brain, the architecture of an animal’s skull can help scientists to deduce many of its dietary and social patterns.
http://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/skulls/structure_and_function.html

Life History of Stegocephalians - Michael Laurin outlines the life history of tetrapods and extinct terrestrial vertebrates.
http://tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=468

Sensory Systems in Amphioxus: A Window on the Ancestral Chordate Condition - Abstract from a paper comparing the sensory systems of vertebrates with the less-developed systems of Amphioxus.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15353907?dopt=Abstract

Will's Skull Page - Features images and measurements of mammalian skulls as well as updates and related links.
http://www.skullsite.co.uk/

Animal Cells and Tissues: Organization of the Animal Body - Notes by Michael J. Farabee on the structure and functions of each of the four major animal tissue types: epithelial, muscle, connective and bone.
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookAnimalTS.html

Other Animal Sounds - Clips recorded by Doug Von Gausig of the sounds made by various amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds.
http://www.naturesongs.com/otheranimals.html

The Integument - Notes on the functions and anatomy of skin and its evolution.
http://www.usm.maine.edu/bio/courses/bio205/08_integument.html

Phylum Hemichordata, Urochordata and Cephalochordata - Illustrated description of these three phyla, and the three classes within Urochordata. Also information on the larval stages which form part of the plankton. [PDF]
http://www.mba.ac.uk/nmbl/publications/occpub/guide/section17.pdf

Online Biology Book: Glossary - Comprehensive list of the technical terms you are likely to come across, with cross references.
http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookgloss.html

The Evolution of Left-Right Asymmetry in Chordates - Article by Clive Boorman and Sebastian Shimeld discussing directional asymmetric morphology in which sidedness is fixed for a population, species or higher taxon. [PDF]
http://users.ox.ac.uk/~zool0615/My PDFs/BioEssays asymmetry review.pdf

Tissue Engineering - Describes research at the National University of Ireland, Galway into developing methods of constructing organs in the laboratory that can subsequently be used in medical applications.
http://www.nuigalway.ie/anatomy/tissue_engineering.html

Vertebrate Zoology - Lecture notes on the characteristics of the Phylum Chordata and the further characteristics of the classes of animals in the Subphylum Vertebrata.
http://www.ossm.edu/biology/vzln.htm

Terrestrial Vertebrates - Describes the principle characteristics of tetrapods, which have well defined joints and digits, their classification and phylogenetic relationships.
http://tolweb.org/Terrestrial_Vertebrates/14952

Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates - Educational and research resource with sections on ichthyology, herpetology, ornithology and mammalogy.
http://cumv.bio.cornell.edu/

Anatomical Terms of Location - Article from Wikipedia describing the complex terminology necessary to be used when describing the anatomy of animals in order to avoid confusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomical_terms_of_location

Respiratory System - Notes on external and internal respiration, ventilation, aquatic and aerial gas exchange in all classes of vertebrate. [PDF]
http://www.uta.edu/biology/2458lab/Exercise 36 Anatomy of the Respiratory System.pdf

Cardiovascular System: The Heart and Vessels - Outlines the function of this system, its anatomy and physiology, and compares the mammalian organs with those of birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=15&cat=1829&articleid=2951

The Annual Symposium of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Comparative Anatomy - Details of this year’s meeting of SVPCA and abstracts from presentations made in previous years.
http://www.svpca.org/

Animal Diversity - Gives the key anatomical characteristics of members of Phylum Hemichordata, Phylum Chordata and its Subphyla Urochordata, Cephalochordata and Vertebrata. Illustrated by slides.
http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/science/biological_sciences/lab13/biolab13_3.html#Hemichordata

Guide to Animal Sounds on the Net - Provides an index to animal sounds on the Web including birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects.
http://members.tripod.com/Thryomanes/AnimalSounds.html

Breathing in Stegocephalians - Most tetrapods breathe with the lungs that they inherited from their ancestors such as the coelacanth and lungfishes and this is probably also true of extinct groups of stegocephalians.
http://tolweb.org/notes/?note_id=469

Invertebrate Members of the Phylum Chordata - Outlines the differences between the subphylum Vertebrata and the two subphyla, Urochordata and Cephalochordata.
http://www.nhc.ed.ac.uk/index.php?page=24.25.312.314

Phylogeny of Stegocephalians - Stegocephalians are tetrapods with digits rather than fins. Michael Laurin explores the relationship between the extant and the extinct members of this group.
http://tolweb.org/articles/?article_id=467

Hearing in Stegocephalians - In this article, Michael Laurin outlines the anatomy and evolution of the outer, middle and inner ear in land vertebrates.
http://tolweb.org/articles/?article_id=470

Chordata - Biomedia Zoology Museum - An introduction to the taxonomy of the phylum Chordata with explanations of the technical terms used.
http://www-biol.paisley.ac.uk/biomedia/text/txt_chord.htm