Melanitta fusca
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources14 archives
Databases and archives Melanitta fusca's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation14 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility585 026 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System44 941 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI49 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics10 specimens↗
FooDBThe Metabolomics Innovation Centrecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The velvet scoter (Melanitta fusca), also called a velvet duck,Buczacki, Stefan (2005) Fauna Britannica, Hamlyn, London. is a large sea duck, which breeds over the far north of Europe and the Palearctic west of the Yenisey basin. The genus name is derived from Ancient Greek melas "black" and netta "duck". The species name is from the Latin fuscus "dusky brown". A small, isolated population nests in eastern Turkey. Stejneger's scoter and the white-winged scoter are sometimes considered conspecific with the velvet scoter, and its two constituent subspecies are then known as M. f. stejnegeri and M. f. deglandi. Velvet, Stejneger's, and white-winged scoter, along with the surf scoter, are placed in the subgenus Melanitta, distinct from the subgenus Oidemia, black scoter and common scoters. Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden It winters farther south in temperate zones, Europe as far south as Great Britain, and on the Black and Caspian Sea. Small numbers reach France and northern Spain. It forms large flocks on suitable coastal waters. These are tightly packed, and the birds tend to take off together. The species is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN. Composite image of velvet scoter The lined nest is built on the ground close to the sea, lakes or rivers, in woodland or tundra, and typically contains 7–9 eggs. This duck dives for crustaceans and molluscs. It is characterised by its bulky shape and large bill. It is the largest scoter at 51–58 cm. The male is all black, except for white around the eye and a white speculum. It has a bulbous yellow bill with a black base. The females are brown birds with two pale patches on each side of the head and white wing patches. The velvet scoter is one of the species to which the Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) applies.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology15
Life cycle & reproduction10
Diet & foraging7
Habitat & environment8
Other traits2
Compounds documented for Melanitta fusca across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds42 428 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1R,16Z,24Z,29Z)-1,18-dihydroxy-12-[1-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxycyclohexyl)propan-2-yl]-19,31-dimethoxy-15,17,21,23,30,36-hexamethyl-11,27,37-trioxa-4-azatetracyclo[31.3.1.0⁴,⁹.0²⁶,²⁸]heptatriaconta-16,24,29-triene-2,3,10,14,20-pentone | present | FooDB | |
| (2,6-dihydroxy-4-{4-hydroxy-7-methyl-11-oxo-2,8-dioxatricyclo[7.3.1.0⁵,¹³]trideca-1(12),3,5(13),6,9-pentaen-3-yl}phenoxy)dihydroxyoxo-λ⁶-sulfanylium | present | FooDB | |
| (4-{2-[(1R,16Z,24Z,29Z)-1,18-dihydroxy-19,31-dimethoxy-15,17,21,23,30,36-hexamethyl-2,3,10,14,20-pentaoxo-11,27,37-trioxa-4-azatetracyclo[31.3.1.0⁴,⁹.0²⁶,²⁸]heptatriaconta-16,24,29-trien-12-yl]propyl}-2-methoxycyclohexyl)oxidanesulfonic acid | present | FooDB | |
| (E)-3-decen-1-ol | present | FooDB | |
| 1,3-Diisopropylbenzene | present | FooDB | |
| 1-Aminopyrene | present | FooDB | |
| 1-Hydroxypyrene glucuronide | present | FooDB | |
| 1-Nitroheptane | present | FooDB | |
| 1-Nitrohexane | present | FooDB | |
| 1-palmitoylglycerol 3-phosphate | present | 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 Melanitta fusca 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.
The complete instruction manual Melanitta fusca 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 solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Melanitta fusca. Above itBeside it, the bars count how many dated finds fall in each slice of time; the tallest bar is labelled, and heights use a square-root scale so that thin slices stay visible next to rich ones. Read this as how well each stretch of time is preserved and studied — thick bars mean plenty of the right kind of rock and plenty of collectors, which is related to, but not the same as, how common it actually was. 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. Where the DNA reaches further back than the oldest fossil, the gap is hatched: the ghost lineage. It means the lineage was already out there, but has left us nothing we have dug up yet.
How it livedPBDB
Record type629 984 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 institutions38 of 70 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 117 |
| Cambridge, US | 114 |
| Helsinki, FI | 92 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 37 |
| Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record | 36 |
| Saint John, CA | 35 |
| Tromsø, NO | 28 |
| University of Nebraska State Museumlocation not on record | 27 |
| Stockholm, SE | 21 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 19 |
| Kuopio, FI | 18 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 17 |
| Oulu, FI | 17 |
| München, DE | 15 |
| Mongolian Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 15 |
| Delaware Museum of Nature and Sciencelocation not on record | 14 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 14 |
| Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record | 14 |
| Geneva, CH | 13 |
| Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record | 11 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 10 |
| CASlocation not on record | 10 |
| Edmonton, CA | 8 |
| Paris, FR | 8 |
| Bergen, NO | 8 |
| Philadelphia, US | 8 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 7 |
| Liverpool, GB | 7 |
| Ohio State University - Bird Division, Columbus, OH (OSUM)location not on record | 7 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 5 |
| Ithaca, US | 5 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 5 |
| MNHAHlocation not on record | 5 |
| Ugentlocation not on record | 5 |
| US | 4 |
| Berkeley, US | 4 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 4 |
| New Haven, US | 4 |
| IMEDEAlocation not on record | 3 |
| Tilburg, NL | 3 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 3 |
| Brussels, BE | 3 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 3 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 3 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 3 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 2 |
| Muzeum i Instytut Zoologii Polskiej Akademii Nauklocation not on record | 2 |
| Salzburg, AT | 2 |
| Rovaniemi, FI | 2 |
| Forssa, FI | 2 |
| Philip L. Wright Zoological Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| STOCKHOLM, SE | 2 |
| Zografou, GR | 2 |
| Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UB RASlocation not on record | 2 |
| Washington, US | 2 |
| Iowa City, US | 2 |
| Tacoma, US | 1 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 1 |
| Albany, US | 1 |
| Indiana State Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation not on record | 1 |
| Tall Timbers Research Stationlocation not on record | 1 |
| Denver, US | 1 |
| Bourges, FR | 1 |
| Musée des Confluenceslocation not on record | 1 |
| KU Leuvenlocation not on record | 1 |
| Chicago, US | 1 |
| Toronto, CA | 1 |
| Moore Laboratory of Zoology, Occidental Collegelocation not on record | 1 |
| University of Wisconsin, Zoological Museumlocation 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 Melanitta fusca 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.