Alca torda
Linnaeus, 1758 · speciesAt a glance
Sources14 archives
Databases and archives Alca torda's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation17 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility701 006 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System146 650 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI31 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics15 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The razorbill, razor-billed auk, or lesser aukProceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Volume 13 (Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 1879), (Alca torda) is a colonial seabird and the only extant member of the genus Alca of the family Alcidae, the auks. It is the closest living relative of the extinct great auk (Pinguinis impennis). Wild populations live in the subarctic waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Razorbills are primarily black with a white underside. The male and female are identical in plumage; however, males are generally larger than females. This agile bird, which is capable of both flight and diving, has a predominantly aquatic lifestyle and only comes to land in order to breed. It is monogamous, choosing one partner for life. Females lay one egg per year. Razorbills nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed crevices. The parents spend equal amounts of time incubating, and once the chick has hatched, they take turns foraging for their young. In 1918, the razorbill was protected in the United States by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Presently, this species faces major threats, including the destruction of breeding sites, oil spills, and deterioration of food quality. The IUCN records the population of the Gagarka as fluctuating, causing its status to interchange. It has been recorded that the population had increased from 2008 to 2015, decreased from 2015 to 2021,https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22694852/82978388 and appears to be increasing or stable at the present. It is believed the population of the Gagarka lies between 838,000 and 1,600,000 individuals.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology14
Life cycle & reproduction12
Diet & foraging5
Habitat & environment6
Other traits3
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 Alca torda 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.
The complete instruction manual Alca torda 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).
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 solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Alca torda. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph. 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. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type847 672 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 institutions42 of 71 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Helsinki, FI | 397 |
| Stockholm, SE | 130 |
| Toronto, CA | 129 |
| Saint John, CA | 124 |
| Tromsø, NO | 120 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 110 |
| Liverpool, GB | 73 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 68 |
| Chicago, US | 58 |
| Cambridge, US | 53 |
| Geneva, CH | 48 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 46 |
| Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record | 45 |
| Brussels, BE | 44 |
| STOCKHOLM, SE | 43 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 39 |
| Paris, FR | 38 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 33 |
| Barcelona, ES | 26 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 25 |
| Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 25 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 25 |
| Seattle, US | 25 |
| Oulu, FI | 22 |
| Bergen, NO | 22 |
| Denver, US | 21 |
| New Haven, US | 17 |
| EEZAlocation not on record | 16 |
| Iowa City, US | 15 |
| Albany, US | 14 |
| IMEDEAlocation not on record | 13 |
| Ilvolocation not on record | 12 |
| Auckland, NZ | 10 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 9 |
| Jurica-Suchy Nature Museumlocation not on record | 8 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 8 |
| Kuopio, FI | 7 |
| Philadelphia, US | 7 |
| Tacoma, US | 6 |
| Los Angeles, US | 6 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 6 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 6 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 5 |
| Natural History Museum, Aarhus Denmarklocation not on record | 5 |
| Tilburg, NL | 5 |
| Bourges, FR | 5 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 4 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 4 |
| Delaware Museum of Nature and Sciencelocation not on record | 3 |
| Ithaca, US | 3 |
| AVGlocation not on record | 3 |
| Zografou, GR | 3 |
| Gothenburg, SE | 2 |
| Universidad de Caldas (UCaldas)location not on record | 2 |
| Moore Laboratory of Zoology, Occidental Collegelocation not on record | 2 |
| Chicago, US | 2 |
| US | 2 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 2 |
| Edmonton, CA | 2 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 1 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| TMPMlocation not on record | 1 |
| Science Museum of Minnesotalocation not on record | 1 |
| Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Musee de Lectourelocation not on record | 1 |
| Zacatecas, MX | 1 |
| KU Leuvenlocation not on record | 1 |
| Vancouver, CA | 1 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| South Kensington, GB | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
Where the DNA of Alca torda 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.