Clupea harengus
Linnaeus, 1758 · speciesAt a glance
Sources15 archives
Databases and archives Clupea harengus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation17 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility479 202 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System1 189 449 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI306 590 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics211 specimens↗
FooDBThe Metabolomics Innovation Centrecompounds↗
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & 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.
Clupea harengus in a barrel Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can grow up to 45 cm in length and weigh up to 1.1 kg. They feed on copepods, krill and small fish, while their natural predators are seals, whales, cod and other larger fish. The Atlantic herring fishery has long been an important part of the economy of New England and the Canadian Atlantic provinces. This is because the fish congregate relatively near to the coast in massive schools, notably in the cold waters of the semi-enclosed Gulf of Maine and Gulf of St. Lawrence. North Atlantic herring schools have been measured up to 4 km3 in size, containing an estimated 4 billion fish.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Life cycle & reproduction3
Habitat & environment3
Uses & economy1
Other traits3
Compounds documented for Clupea harengus across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds1 614 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sugars | 7,710 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| L-Glutamic acid | 3,674 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| L-Aspartic acid | 2,520 mg/100g | FooDB | |
| epsilon-Polylysine | 2,260 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 Clupea harengus 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 Clupea harengus 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 type1 668 651 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.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions24 of 73 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 | 7 421 |
| FishBaselocation not on record | 7 338 |
| 730location not on record | 3 020 |
| ICESlocation not on record | 2 518 |
| RWSlocation not on record | 2 334 |
| Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO)location not on record | 2 154 |
| Ilvolocation not on record | 1 013 |
| Cambridge, US | 275 |
| Stockholm, SE | 231 |
| Toronto, CA | 184 |
| Vancouver, CA | 143 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 126 |
| Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record | 120 |
| The Atlantic Reference Centre (ARC)location not on record | 96 |
| DASSHlocation not on record | 90 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 67 |
| Washington, US | 56 |
| KULlocation not on record | 44 |
| VUB/UGentlocation not on record | 36 |
| Tromsø, NO | 32 |
| Paris, FR | 31 |
| New Haven, US | 30 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 29 |
| Helsinki, FI | 26 |
| Stockholm, SE | 25 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 22 |
| 19 | |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 19 |
| UGent-MARBIOLlocation not on record | 16 |
| Los Angeles, US | 15 |
| Maurice Lamontagne Institutelocation not on record | 15 |
| Bergen, NO | 14 |
| CASlocation not on record | 14 |
| VLIZ | ILVOlocation not on record | 13 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 13 |
| Chicago, US | 13 |
| Bonn, DE | 12 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 11 |
| Vlaams Instituut voor de Zeelocation not on record | 11 |
| South Kensington, GB | 11 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 10 |
| Nova Scotia Museumlocation not on record | 10 |
| VUB/Ugentlocation not on record | 8 |
| University of Alberta Museumslocation not on record | 7 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 7 |
| Deutsches Zentrum fuer Marine Biodiversitaetsforschunglocation not on record | 6 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 5 |
| University of California San Diegolocation not on record | 5 |
| Brussels, BE | 5 |
| Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record | 5 |
| Oregon State Universitylocation not on record | 5 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 4 |
| PNHSlocation not on record | 4 |
| IZWOlocation not on record | 4 |
| Ohio State University - Fish Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 3 |
| University Museum of Bergen, Natural History Collectionslocation not on record | 3 |
| SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung Münchenlocation not on record | 3 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 3 |
| CEFASlocation not on record | 3 |
| Chinese Academy of Sciences, Marine Biodiversity Collection of South China Sealocation not on record | 2 |
| Tilburg, NL | 2 |
| Champaign, US | 2 |
| University of Oslo, Natural History Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 1 |
| CLOlocation not on record | 1 |
| Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeirolocation not on record | 1 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 1 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 1 |
| Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientalelocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Alabamalocation not on record | 1 |
| Southeastern Louisiana University, Vertebrate Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| ARMS-MBONlocation not on record | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
Where the DNA of Clupea harengus 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.