Anarhichas lupus
Linnaeus, 1758 · speciesAt a glance
Sources13 archives
Databases and archives Anarhichas lupus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation12 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility25 651 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System47 843 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI8 662 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics209 specimens↗
FooDBThe Metabolomics Innovation Centrecompounds↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The Atlantic wolffish (Anarhichas lupus), also known as the seawolf, Atlantic catfish, ocean catfish, devil fish, wolf eel (the common name for its Pacific relative), woof or sea cat, is a marine fish of the wolffish family Anarhichadidae, native to the North Atlantic Ocean. The numbers of the Atlantic wolffish in US waters are rapidly being depleted, most likely due to overfishing and bycatch, and it is currently a Species of Concern according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service."Atlantic Wolfish, Species of Concern." NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/species/atlanticwolffish_detailed.pdf (Reviewed October 8, 2008). Apart from their unique appearance wolffish are distinguished by the natural antifreeze they produce to keep their blood moving fluidly in their very cold habitat, involvement by both the male and female in brood bearing, and the large size of their eggs. They are also an important factor in controlling green crab and sea urchin populations, which can become overly disruptive to habitats if left unchecked. Wolffish population success is also an important indicator of the health of other bottom-dweller populations, such as Atlantic cod.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Habitat & environment2
Uses & economy1
Other traits3
Compounds documented for Anarhichas lupus across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds87 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cholesterol | 58,000 mg/100 g | FooDB | |
| L-Glutamic acid | 3,349 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| Nitrogen | 2,600 mg/100 g | FooDB | |
| (E)-2-Phenyl-2-butenal | 2,300 mg/100 g | FooDB | |
| L-Aspartic acid | 2,297 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| epsilon-Polylysine | 2,061 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| L-Leucine | 1,824 mg/100g | FooDB |
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 Anarhichas lupus 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 Anarhichas lupus 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 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 type73 494 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.
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions16 of 34 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| The Atlantic reference Centrelocation not on record | 702 |
| FishBaselocation not on record | 654 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 106 |
| Bergen, NO | 83 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 42 |
| Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record | 36 |
| Washington, US | 34 |
| Toronto, CA | 25 |
| Nova Scotia Museumlocation not on record | 22 |
| Maurice Lamontagne Institutelocation not on record | 20 |
| Stockholm, SE | 20 |
| ICESlocation not on record | 20 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 17 |
| 15 | |
| Paris, FR | 14 |
| Cambridge, US | 12 |
| New Haven, US | 7 |
| Helsinki, FI | 7 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 7 |
| University of Texas Biodiversity Collections (UTBC)location not on record | 6 |
| Tromsø, NO | 4 |
| Chicago, US | 3 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 3 |
| Norwegian Institute of Marine Researchlocation not on record | 3 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 2 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 2 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 2 |
| DASSHlocation not on record | 1 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 1 |
| Los Angeles, US | 1 |
| Musée Zoologique de la ville de Strasbourglocation not on record | 1 |
| University Museum of Bergen, Natural History Collectionslocation not on record | 1 |
| University of California San Diegolocation not on record | 1 |
| 730location not on record | 1 |
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Where the DNA of Anarhichas lupus 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.