Chordates have a notochord and a dorsal, hollow
nerve cord
• Vertebrates are a subphylum of phylum Chordata
• Chordates are bilaterian animals that belong to the clade
of animals known as Deuterostomia
Two groups of invertebrate deuterostomes, the
urochordates and cephalochordates, are more closely
related to vertebrates than to invertebrates