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No Backbone Backseat

No Backbone Backseat

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No Backbone Backseat
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Lyrics

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Investigate invertebrates
These animals are not the same as chordates
You will find these phyla are known as animals without backbones
Backbeat for those without a backbone.
No backbone growin' no backbone

You know a protozoan is a microscopic creature, a single cell feature
An animal that lives as the most primitive
Oh you are so unicellular, as a protozoan, comin', goin', in the ocean
Swimmin' little fella propelled by flagella
To understand their body plan, define 'em with a phylum Protozoan
Backbeat for those without a backbone
No backbone growin' no backbone

If you met a metazoan you would know him, how you tell
It's an animal that's growin' into something multi-celled
For the simplest of these species take a plunge
To the bottom of the ocean, start lookin' for a sponge! Spongin' Porifera
This phylum has lived here 600 million years
To understand their body plan, define 'em with a phylum Porifera
Backbeat for those without a backbone
No backbone growin' no backbone

Arthropods are jointed limbed, with a head and thorax and abdomen
Their hardened skin is an exoskeleton and marine arthropods are crustaceans
There are quite a lot of other land arthropoda, many footed centipede, chilapoda
Diplopada, a millipede, one thousand feet millin' round feedin' on decaying plants
Scorpion, tick, mite, spider, insect and the like made of segments called somites, it's their body plan
Their life cycle often is a change through metamorphosis
Transforming, many do, into something born anew
To understand their body plan, define 'em with a phylum Arthropoda
Backbeat for those without a backbone
No backbone growin' no backbone

If you want to get to know a Nematoda, it's a worm, squirmin' for a bite, a parasite
Now it can't wait to satisfy an appetite inside of every vertebrate
Round worm, pin worm, whipworm, guinea worm
Live in your intestines, feed on yummy yeast
Some are predators, on living things they love to feast
Billions in the soil, in the water we are told
There could be a half a million different kinds of Nematodes
To understand their body plan, define 'em with a phylum Nematoda
Backbeat for those without a backbone
No backbone growin' no backbone

Annelida we will learn, is the body of a worm
Segmented and cylindrical, it burrows down into the shade or lives in tubes that it has made
The earthworm one of the nine thousand species using bristles, call 'em setae
When it gets a notion to hold on tight or crawl in wormy locomotion
With male and female parts, mating works alright, Annelida reproduce as hermaphrodites
To understand their body plan, define 'em with a phylum Annelida
Backbeat for those without a backbone
No backbone growin' no backbone
Of all the living animals discovered to date, 95% are invertebrates

No Backbone Backseat

 Song Credits:

Music and Lyrics by Dennis Westphall
© 2000

 Album Credits:

Founding directors and executive producers of Tickle Tune Typhoon:
Lorraine Bayes and Dennis Westphall
Produced by Dennis Westphall and Nick Moore
Arranged and orchestrated by Nick Moore
For the Microsoft® "Explorapedia" Children's lnteractive Encyclopedia
Songs produced and arranged by Danny Deardorff

Recording and Mixing Engineers: Jim Bachman at JB Productions and Larz Nefzger at Triad Studios
Cover Art and Design: Kathryn Rathke
Package Layout: Sally Porter & Doug Haverty

The Tickle Tune Typhoon Performers:
Dennis Westphall - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Lorraine Bayes - Lead Vocals, Autoharp
Angie Bolton - Lead Vocals, Percussion
Richard Warner - Saxophone, Flutes
Eric Chappelle - Violin, Mandolin

Contributing Musicians:
Nick Moore - Piano, Keyboards, Synthesizers
Danny Deardorff - Lead Vocals, Mandolin
Murl Allen Sanders - Accordion
Michael Eads - Electric Guitar
Chris Middaugh - Pedal Steel Guitar
Terry Lauber - Pedal Steel Guitar, Vocals
Paul Elliott - Horns
Dewey Marler - Horns
Ed Hartman- Maribas, Percussion
Chuck Deardorff - Upright Bass
Nancy Rumbel - Oboe, English Horn, Ocarinas
Brian Pertl - Didgeridoo
Mark Ivester - Drums and Hand Percussion

String Section:
Marlene Weaver, Dan Williams
Eileen Swanson, Christine Olason

Contributing Vocalists:
Jennifer Lind, Kelly Hardland
Libby Torrance

The Children's Chorus on "Weights and Measures":
Lauren Govier, Alison Kimble, Krisanna Reift, Dana Sedgwick, Alyssa Wiblitzhouser
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