Question

What would you say is the economic and societal impact of vertebrates?

Answer 1

Well, if you think about goods that are made from animals (including food) there are very few that aren't coming from vertebrata. All leathers are coming from the subphylum. As are all milks/cheese etc. On the food, really if you don't think of the plants we eat, there are few animals that aren't vertebrates, crickets, worms, etc. are generally only eaten in a few specific areas of the modern world.

On a less materialistic point of view, aside from the crickets, worms etc, all pets are vertebrates; while flies and microbes are the most common lab specimens, vertebrates aren't far behind and in the medicinal chemistry and procedural medicine fields vertebrates are the standard.

Answer 2

I realised that I didn't point out that snails, octopi, lobster and crabs are all invertebrates and they do constitute more of the food than I made it sound like