- Vertebrates (/ˈvɜːrtəbrɪts, -ˌbreɪts/) are animals with spinal cords and bony or cartilaginous backbones, including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish. The vertebrates consist of all the taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata (/ˌvɜːrtəˈbreɪtə/) (chordates with backbones) and represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with currently about 69,963 species described.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson (Wikipedia)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche considered him “the most gifted of the Americans”, and Walt Whitman referred to him as his “master”.