Agkistrodon piscivorus
(Lacépède, 1789) · speciesAt a glance
Sources11 archives
Databases and archives Agkistrodon piscivorus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation15 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility18 578 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System4 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI14 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics19 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The western cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma)Conant R. 1975. A Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America. Second Edition. First published in 1958. Houghton Mifflin Company Boston. 429 pp. 48 plates. (hc), (pb).Wright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. Comstock Publishing Associates. (7th printing, 1985). 1105 pp. . was once classified as a subspecies of the cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus). However, DNA based studies published in 2008 and 2015, revealed no significant genetic difference between the eastern cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus piscivorus) and the western cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus leucostoma) and synonymized the two subspecies (with the oldest published name, A. p. piscivorus, having priority). The resulting taxonomy does not recognizes the western cottonmouth (A. p. leucostoma) as a valid taxon.Guiher TJ, Burbrink FT (2008). Demographic and phylogeographic histories of two venomous North American snakes of the genus Agkistrodon. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 48: 543–553.Burbrink, Frank T. and Timothy J. Guiher. 2014. Considering gene flow when using coalescent methods to delimit lineages of North American pitvipers of the genus Agkistrodon. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 173: 505–526. Several subsequent reviews and species accounts have followed and supported the revised taxonomy.Crother, B. I. ( editor). 2017. Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding, 8th. edition. SSAR Herpetological Circular 43, 1–102 pp. (page 59)Powell, Robert, Roger Conant, and Joseph T. Collins. 2016. Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, 4th ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co. New York. 494 pp.Uetz P, Freed P, Aguilar R, Hošek J (editors) (2021). The Reptile Database, Agkistrodon piscivorus (accessed 6 August 2021) Information on this snake can be found in the Agkistrodon piscivorus article.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology1
Life cycle & reproduction6
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Agkistrodon piscivorus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Agkistrodon piscivorus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 361×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type18 582 records
Origin
Range
Depth
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions20 of 40 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 755 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 543 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 323 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 231 |
| Texas Memorial Museum, Texas Natural History Collectionlocation not on record | 182 |
| APSUlocation not on record | 167 |
| Washington, US | 153 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 137 |
| EL PASO, US | 119 |
| Southeastern Louisiana University, Vertebrate Museumlocation not on record | 86 |
| Montgomery, US | 84 |
| ASNHClocation not on record | 62 |
| New Haven, US | 54 |
| Cambridge, US | 44 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 41 |
| München, DE | 38 |
| Chongqing Museumlocation not on record | 34 |
| Berkeley, US | 27 |
| Los Angeles, US | 21 |
| Fort Hays State University, Sternberg Museumlocation not on record | 20 |
| CASlocation not on record | 13 |
| Ohio State University - Reptile Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 11 |
| Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record | 9 |
| F. Scorina Gomel State Universitylocation not on record | 8 |
| Toronto, CA | 7 |
| University of Texas at Arlingtonlocation not on record | 6 |
| Zacatecas, MX | 4 |
| 4 | |
| Provo, US | 3 |
| San Diego, US | 3 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 3 |
| Saint John, CA | 3 |
| Tacoma, US | 2 |
| Seattle, US | 2 |
| Philadelphia, US | 2 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 1 |
| Brussels, BE | 1 |
| University of Alberta Museumslocation not on record | 1 |
| ASUlocation not on record | 1 |
| UCOCVlocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Agkistrodon piscivorus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.