Argyropelecus gigas, the giant hatchetfish or greater silver hatchetfish, is a marine fish of the genus Argyropelecus. It is found in every ocean except the north Pacific in the mesopelagic zone of tropical and subtropical waters. "Giant" in relative terms only, this is the largest species of marine hatchetfishes, often exceeding 110 mm standard length.
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 Argyropelecus gigas has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens49
BINs2
Marker genes1
eDNA detections53
Countries8
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P652 bp consensus47 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. 98% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 10 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)1.3%
Haplotypes14
BINs2
Most divergent pair14.3%
OceaniaOtherN.America
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-5P
animal barcode
07Deep time~10.8 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 origin10.8 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 type1 725 records
Wild obs. + sensor590
Museum / vouchered1 044
Other91
Origin
Native20
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO3 336 km²
Depth
0–200 m sunlit19
200–1000 m twilight333
1–4 km midnight119
>4 km abyssal2
median 843.2 m · max 5 070 m · 473 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 accuracy97% within 1 km
≤100 m 341≤1 km 66≤10 km 6>10 km 8
421 georeferenced · 169 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor590
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 41≤1 km 150≤10 km 53>10 km 141
385 georeferenced · 659 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence1 044
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 institutions16 of 41 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Cambridge, US
74
Australian National Fish Collectionlocation not on record
70
Copenhagen, DK
47
FishBaselocation not on record
38
Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record
37
South Kensington, GB
28
Museums Victorialocation not on record
25
Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record
21
The Atlantic reference Centrelocation not on record
21
Washington, US
17
Sydney, AU
16
Paris, FR
16
Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record
14
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversitylocation not on record
14
University of California San Diegolocation not on record
11
New Haven, US
11
North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record
10
AADClocation not on record
9
University of Texas Biodiversity Collections (UTBC)location not on record
8
Maurice Lamontagne Institutelocation not on record
6
Los Angeles, US
6
Sherkin Island Marine Stationlocation not on record
6
IEOlocation not on record
5
Bergen, NO
4
SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung Münchenlocation not on record
4
Chicago, US
4
CASlocation not on record
3
IEO-COMA-CSIClocation not on record
3
Wuzhou, CN
3
DOI/NPS, Salem Maritime National Historic Sitelocation not on record
3
ICM-CSIClocation not on record
3
Chiba, JP
2
QVMAGlocation not on record
2
50location not on record
1
Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de Sao Paulolocation not on record
1
Brussels, BE
1
Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record
1
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallerylocation not on record
1
College Station, US
1
Frankfurt am Main
1
Toronto, CA
1
41 institutions · 549 of 1 044 vouchered records shown · 24 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA53 detections
Where the DNA of Argyropelecus gigas 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 found53
Studies independent surveys1
Countries8
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 53 detections have coordinates
Open the map8 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 median21.8 °C 10.1–27.8
Seasonal swing summer↔winter8.90 °C
Max temp (day)22.2 °C 10.9–28.7
Min temp (night)21.3 °C 9.20–26.8
Precipitation85.2 mm/mo 59.1–186
Air humidity62.7 % 59.1–66.2
Vapour deficit1,053 Pa 464–1,399
Cloud cover36.2 % 28.5–44.5
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 42 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 Foundation4 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility909 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System816 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI53 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics49 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗