Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
NarrativeWikipediaarticle
Traits & measurements1 literature sources3 traits
Occurrence & distributionGBIF191 records
Genome at a glanceGoaT1.3 Gbp
01Narrative
Amphisbaena mertensii, also known as the Mertens' worm lizard or Mertens's worm lizard, is a species of worm lizard in the family Amphisbaenidae. The species is endemic to South America.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
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 Amphisbaena mertensii has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
06Genome at a glanceGoaT
The complete instruction manualAmphisbaena mertensii 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
Genome size1 290 960 000 bp
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).
BACTERIUM Carsonella ruddii0.00016 Gb
FUNGUS0.04 Gb
INSECT0.25 Gb
THIS GENOME Amphisbaena mertensii1.29 Gb
HUMAN3.2 Gb
WHEAT17 Gb
FERN Tmesipteris160.45 Gb
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.
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
DNA clock origin27.5 Ma TimeTree
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.
DNA clock origin
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type191 records
Wild obs. + sensor70
Museum / vouchered120
Cultivated / captive1
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO488 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy72% within 1 km
≤100 m 30≤1 km 11≤10 km 6>10 km 10
57 georeferenced · 13 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor70
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.
Coordinate accuracy50% within 1 km
≤100 m 2≤10 km 2
4 georeferenced · 116 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence120
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy
no georeferenced coordinates · 1 records without
Open the mapnot free-living1
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions6 of 11 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
University of the South Pacificlocation not on record
57
UFMSlocation not on record
18
Universidade Federal de Juiz de Foralocation not on record
13
Londrina, BR
12
Washington, US
9
UNICAMPlocation not on record
4
Cambridge, US
2
Buenos Aires, AR
2
Wuzhou, CN
1
Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldilocation not on record
1
Stockholm, SE
1
11 institutions · 120 of 120 vouchered records shown
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
