The Vertebrate Genomes Project aims to provide annotated reference genome sequences for all vertebrate species. The initial phase is targeting one species per order, although additional species may be sequenced from some orders. This study contains transcriptomic data from multiple sequencing platforms, which will be utilised as evidence for annotation of the high quality, chromosomal genome assemblies.This data is part of a pre-publication release. For information on the proper use of pre-publication data shared by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute (including details of any publication moratoria), please see http://www.sanger.ac.uk/datasharing/