Anguilla anguilla
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources14 archives
Databases and archives Anguilla anguilla's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation18 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility998 025 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System357 715 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI309 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics297 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
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.
Édouard Manet, 1864 The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is a species of eel, a snake-like, catadromous fish. They are normally around 60 - and rarely reach more than 1 m, but can reach a length of up to 1.5 m in exceptional cases. Eels have been important sources of food both as adults (including jellied eels of East London) and as glass eels. Glass-eel fishing using basket traps has been of significant economic value in many river estuaries on the western seaboard of Europe. While the species' lifespan in the wild has not been determined, captive specimens have lived over 80 years. A specimen known as "the Brantevik Eel" lived for 155 years in the well of a family home in Brantevik, a fishing village in southern Sweden.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Life cycle & reproduction3
Habitat & environment4
Uses & economy1
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 Anguilla anguilla 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 Anguilla anguilla 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 385×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database · GoaT · Tree of Sex Database · GoaT · Animal Genome Size Database +1
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 type1 355 740 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 institutions30 of 74 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| South Kensington, GB | 428 |
| Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientalelocation not on record | 370 |
| Cambridge, US | 187 |
| Stockholm, SE | 115 |
| 74 | |
| Paris, FR | 64 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 62 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 50 |
| VLIZ | ILVOlocation not on record | 47 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 42 |
| Brussels, BE | 34 |
| Bonn, DE | 34 |
| Barcelona, ES | 30 |
| Bergen, NO | 29 |
| Helsinki, FI | 27 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 27 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 23 |
| Washington, US | 22 |
| FishBaselocation not on record | 22 |
| VUB/UGentlocation not on record | 21 |
| KULlocation not on record | 21 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 20 |
| DASSHlocation not on record | 19 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 16 |
| SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung Münchenlocation not on record | 15 |
| National Natural History Collectionslocation not on record | 14 |
| Paro, BT | 13 |
| Ilvolocation not on record | 12 |
| The Atlantic reference Centrelocation not on record | 12 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 11 |
| PNHSlocation not on record | 11 |
| Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record | 11 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 10 |
| Sevilla, ES | 10 |
| CASlocation not on record | 9 |
| Toronto, CA | 9 |
| 730location not on record | 9 |
| South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversitylocation not on record | 8 |
| Royal Museum for Central Africalocation not on record | 8 |
| Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO)location not on record | 7 |
| SNSDlocation not on record | 7 |
| Geneva, CH | 7 |
| Chicago, US | 7 |
| VUB/Ugentlocation not on record | 6 |
| Fribourg, CH | 6 |
| Los Angeles, US | 6 |
| Dhaka, BD | 6 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 5 |
| Institut Francais pour l'Etude de la Merlocation not on record | 5 |
| 486location not on record | 4 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 4 |
| Kuopio, FI | 4 |
| SGAV-and-NHMDlocation not on record | 4 |
| ZSMlocation not on record | 3 |
| Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record | 3 |
| Citadel Hill, GB | 2 |
| New Haven, US | 2 |
| ICM-CSIClocation not on record | 2 |
| IEO-COMA-CSIClocation not on record | 2 |
| Tromsø, NO | 2 |
| Naturmuseum Oltenlocation not on record | 2 |
| Natural History Museum of the Iberian Peninsula - NatMIP ("Museu de História Natural da Península Ibérica")location not on record | 2 |
| CLOlocation not on record | 2 |
| ICESlocation not on record | 2 |
| Oulu, FI | 1 |
| Vancouver, CA | 1 |
| National Museum of Natural History, Praguelocation not on record | 1 |
| Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeirolocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Nebraskalocation not on record | 1 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 1 |
| Johanna Bergkvistlocation not on record | 1 |
| Forssa, FI | 1 |
| Oberoesterreichisches Landesmuseum, Biologiezentrum, Linzlocation not on record | 1 |
| Tilburg, NL | 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 Anguilla anguilla 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.