Western Atlantic seabream (Archosargus rhomboidalis) is an ocean-going species of fish in the family, Sparidae. It was first described in 1758 by the "father of modern taxonomy," Carl Linnaeus, in the 10th edition of his book, Systema Naturae. Within their native range, Western Atlantic seabream are also known as the seabream,Nelson, J.S., E.J. Crossman, H. Espinosa-Pérez, L.T. Findley, C.R. Gilbert, R.N. Lea and J.D. Williams 2004 Common and scientific names of fishes from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. American Fisheries Society, Special Publication 29, Bethesda, Maryland. brim,Zaneveld, J.S. 1983 Caribbean Fish Life. Index to the local and scientific names of the marine fishes and fishlike invertebrates of the Caribbean area (Tropical Western Central Atlantic Ocean) E.J. Brill / Dr. W. Backhuys, Leiden, 163 p. tropical sheepshead, chopa amarilla, or salema. Although they are eaten, and have been described as pan fish, Western Atlantic seabream have not gained the popularity as a gamefish that their relative, the sheepshead (A. probatocephalus) has.
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 Archosargus rhomboidalis has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens37
BINs1
Marker genes2
eDNA detections38
Countries7
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P652 bp consensus36 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 99% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 6 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)1.1%
Haplotypes3
BIN1
Most divergent pair0.31%
N.AmericaOther
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ 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.
★COI-5P12S
animal barcodemarker
07Deep time~15.8 Ma lineage
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 origin15.8 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 type2 295 records
Wild obs. + sensor1 557
Museum / vouchered714
Cultivated / captive8
Other16
Origin
Native37
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO3 208 km²
Depth
0–200 m sunlit225
200–1000 m twilight0
1–4 km midnight0
>4 km abyssal0
median 3 m · max 116 m · 225 records with depth
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy84% within 1 km
≤100 m 108≤1 km 38≤10 km 7>10 km 21
174 georeferenced · 1 383 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor1 557
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 accuracy62% within 1 km
≤100 m 122≤1 km 25≤10 km 60>10 km 31
238 georeferenced · 476 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence714
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 · 8 records without
Open the mapnot free-living8
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 institutions13 of 37 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados, Unidad Irapuato, Instituto Politécnico Nacionallocation not on record
64
Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record
62
Washington, US
42
Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Unidad Académica de Sistemas Arrecifales, Puerto Morelos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Méxicolocation not on record
30
Tapachula, MX
28
Paris, FR
18
Mexico City, MX
18
Los Angeles, US
14
PUC-RSlocation not on record
14
Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record
13
Universidad del Valle de Guatemalalocation not on record
10
CASlocation not on record
9
North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record
6
Chicago, US
6
UFRRJlocation not on record
6
Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record
5
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulolocation not on record
5
Ann Arbor, US
5
Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record
4
UFESlocation not on record
4
Toronto, CA
4
Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeirolocation not on record
3
3
San Nicolás de los Garza, MX
3
USP-RPlocation not on record
3
University of California San Diegolocation not on record
3
Universidad del Valle (UniValle)location not on record
2
UNICAMPlocation not on record
2
Wuzhou, CN
2
University of Nebraskalocation not on record
2
INMAlocation not on record
2
Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservationlocation not on record
1
FishBaselocation not on record
1
Morelia, MX
1
Geneva, CH
1
University of Texas Biodiversity Collections (UTBC)location not on record
1
Centro Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Marinas, Instituto Politécnico Nacionallocation not on record
1
37 institutions · 398 of 714 vouchered records shown · 20 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA38 detections
Where the DNA of Archosargus rhomboidalis 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
Detections DNA found38
Studies independent surveys2
Countries6
Signal confidence: moderateweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 38 detections have coordinates
Open the map6 countries0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median25.8 °C 23.5–28.1
Seasonal swing summer↔winter4.80 °C
Max temp (day)29.3 °C 26.0–31.7
Min temp (night)24.2 °C 21.2–25.5
Precipitation88.0 mm/mo 15.9–164
Air humidity60.7 % 58.8–64.2
Moisture balance-49.1 mm/mo -165–32.9
Vapour deficit1,229 Pa 1,154–1,558
Wind speed4.20 m/s 1.50–6.40
Cloud cover25.2 % 14.0–43.3
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 34 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
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.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation7 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility1 462 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System833 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI38 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics37 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗