Parade of Extant Chordates

[ChristopherSea]

RiverNotch, At least you only strived to record the extant Chordata and exclude the extinct genera!  
I found this piece amusing for multiple reasons, the first being implied in my opening comment, i.e.,
that you carry out a theme that 'you may not have realized the scope of your piece until it was too late.'
You admit that you set yourself up for skimming much of the higher chordates due to the mountain that
you mistook as a molehill.

Also, there are a heap of funny observations and odd juxtapositions that evoked big grins from me, including…

‘Their class name is sadly iambic.’

‘(the former are vertebrate cuties!)’

‘One species is yummy Tilapia!’

'I'll skim over all of their orders,
so that this'll quickly be over.'


…and so forth. Science and poetry are good bedfellows. I would keep working on this.
You need a closing/concluding stanza for certain.

Good luck editing this monstrosity!/Chris