Ophiophagus hannah
(Cantor, 1836) · speciesAt a glance
Sources9 archives
Databases and archives Ophiophagus hannah's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation21 languages↗
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility854 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI16 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics29 specimens↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah) is a venomous snake species of elapids endemic to jungles in Southern and Southeast Asia. The sole member of the genus Ophiophagus, it is distinguishable from other cobras, most noticeably by its size and neck patterns. The king cobra is the world's longest venomous snake, with an average length of 3.18 to, reaching a maximum of 5.85 m. Its skin colour varies across the habitats, from black with white stripes to unbroken brownish grey. It preys chiefly on other snakes, including its own species. Unlike other snakes, it rarely hunts other vertebrates, such as rodents and lizards. Like most cobras and mambas, the king cobra's threat display includes spreading its neck-flap, raising its head upright, puffing, and hissing. Despite its fearsome reputation, the king cobra avoids confrontation with humans whenever possible. When provoked, however, it is capable of striking a target at long range and well above the ground. Rather than biting and retreating, it may sustain its bite and inject a large quantity of venom, which is a medical emergency. Regarded as the national reptile of India, this species has an eminent position in mythology and folk traditions of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Threatened by habitat destruction, the king cobra has been listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 2010.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology1
Life cycle & reproduction3
Other traits1
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 Ophiophagus hannah 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 Ophiophagus hannah 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 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 type854 records
Origin
Range
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 institutions15 of 31 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 | 17 |
| CASlocation not on record | 13 |
| BMNHlocation not on record | 13 |
| Bombay Natural History Societylocation not on record | 10 |
| Washington, US | 9 |
| South Kensington, GB | 5 |
| ZSIlocation not on record | 5 |
| 4 | |
| Toronto, CA | 4 |
| Berkeley, US | 4 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 3 |
| Chicago, US | 3 |
| Paris, FR | 3 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 2 |
| Natural History Museum, Tribhuvan Universitylocation not on record | 2 |
| Stockholm, SE | 2 |
| Chengdu Institute of Biologylocation not on record | 2 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 1 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 1 |
| Natick, US | 1 |
| LSUMZ, MNHNlocation not on record | 1 |
| APSUlocation not on record | 1 |
| NKBPlocation not on record | 1 |
| TNRClocation not on record | 1 |
| State Forest Research Institute, Jabalpurlocation not on record | 1 |
| 1 | |
| CSPTlocation not on record | 1 |
| MCBTlocation not on record | 1 |
| ZSIPlocation not on record | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
| Brussels, BE | 1 |
Where the DNA of Ophiophagus hannah 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.