are built along the basic chordate body plan: a stiff rod running through the length of the animal (vertebral column or notochord), with a hollow tube of nervous tissue (the spinal cord) above it and the gastrointestinal tract below. In all vertebrates, the mouth is found at, or right below, the anterior end of the animal, while the anus opens to the exterior before the end of the body. The remaining part of the body beyond the anus forms a tail with vertebrae and the spinal cord, but no gut. The defining characteristic of a vertebrate is the vertebral column, in which the notochord (a stiff rod of uniform composition) found in all chordates has been replaced by a segmented series of stiffer elements (vertebrae) separated by mobile joints (intervertebral discs, derived embryonically and evolutionarily from the notochord). However, a few fish have secondarily lost this anatomy, retaining the notochord into adulthood, such as the sturgeon. The vertebral column consists of a centrum (the central body or spine of the vertebra), vertebral arches which protrude from the top and bottom of the centrum, and various processes which project from the centrum or arches. An arch extending from the top of the centrum is called a neural arch, while the haemal arch or chevron is found underneath the centrum in the caudal vertebrae of fish. The centrum of a fish is usually concave at each end (amphicoelous), which limits the motion of the fish. In contrast, the centrum of a mammal is flat at each end (acoelous), a shape that can support and distribute compressive forces. The vertebrae of lobe-finned fishes consist of three discrete bony elements. The vertebral arch surrounds the spinal cord, and is broadly similar in form to that found in most other vertebrates. Just beneath the arch lies the small plate-like pleurocentrum, which protects the upper surface of the notochord. Below that, a larger arch-shaped intercentrum protects the lower border. Both of these structures are embedded within a single cylindrical mass of cartilage. A similar arrangement was found in primitive tetrapods, but in the evolutionary line that led to reptiles, mammals and birds, the intercentrum became partially or wholly replaced by an enlarged pleurocentrum, which in turn became the bony vertebral body. In most ray-finned fishes, including all teleosts, these two structures are fused with and embedded within a solid piece of bone superficially resembling the vertebral