Craniate with well-defined heads, thus excluding members of the chordate subphyla Tunicata (tunicates) and Cephalochordata (lancelets), but including Myxini, which have cartilaginous skulls and tooth-like structures composed of keratin. Craniata also includes all lampreys and armoured jawless fishes, armoured fish, sharks, skates, and rays, and teleostomians: spiny sharks, bony fish, lissamphibians, temnospondyls and protoreptiles, sauropsids and mammals. The craniate head consists of a brain, sense organs, including eyes, and a skull. In addition to distinct crania (sing. "cranium"), craniates possess many derived characteristics, which have allowed for more complexity to follow. Molecular-genetic analysis of craniates reveals that, compared to less complex
Animals in the Bible have, or have not, fins and scales (Leviticus 11:9, 10). The reptiles, or "creeping things", form the fourth class. References to this class are relatively few. However, it should be noticed that the "creeping things" include not only the reptiles properly so called, but also all short-legged animals or insects which seem to crawl rather than to walk, such as moles, lizards, etc. From a religious viewpoint, all these animals are divided into two classes, clean and unclean, according to whether they can, or cannot, be eaten. Animals in the Bible The Bible names over 120 species of animals by