Chordata
For an animal to be considered a chordate it must have a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post anal tail for at least some part of its life. The phylum Chordata is broken up into three sub-divisions which are, craniata, urochordata, and cephalochordata. There are over 60,000 species in the phylum chordata and the animals range from the blue whale to the peregrine falcon and everything in between.