20
Living things
Vertebrates and invertebrates
There are many different animals. We can divide them into two main groups: animals that have a
spine
and animals that don’t.
Vertebrates
The name for animals with a spine is
vertebrates
. They have a
skeleton
inside them. Most vertebrates
have a head, a
torso
,
limbs
and a
tail
.
What is a
skeleton for?
R E A D & T H I N K
1
Read and find three differences between
vertebrates and invertebrates.
Invertebrates
The name for animals that don’t have a spine is
invertebrates
. They don’t have a skeleton inside them.
They’re usually smaller than vertebrates. Why do you think that is?
Invertebrate animals protect their bodies in different ways.
Some invertebrates have a
shell
to protect their bodies, for example, snails and oysters.
Oysters have hard shells.
Butterflies are invertebrates.
Prawns don’t have a spine.
