Ovis aries
Linnaeus, 1758 · speciesAt a glance
Sources11 archives
Databases and archives Ovis aries's data was compiled from.
Animal Diversity WebUniv. of Michigan MZspecies account↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility131 405 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI2 613 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics1 020 specimens↗
FooDBThe Metabolomics Innovation Centrecompounds↗
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The physical details of domestic sheep vary greatly among breeds. Head and body length is 1,200-1,800 mm and shoulder height is 650-1,270 mm. Female sheep tend to be three quarters to two thirds the size of males. Wild sheep have tails between 70-150 mm but in domestic sheep tails may be larger and used as a fat reserve, although these long tails are removed on most commercial farms. Sheep have a vertical cleft and narrow snout completely covered with short hair except on the margins of the nostrils and lips. The genus Ovis is characterized by the presence of glands situated in a shallow depression in the lacrimal bone, the groin area, and between the two main toes of the foot. These glands secrete a clear semi-fluid substance that gives domestic sheep their characteristic smell. The skulls of domesticated sheep differ from those of wild sheep in that the eye socket and brain case are reduced. Selection for economically important traits has produced domestic sheep with or without wool, horns, and external ears. Coloration ranges from milky white to dark brown and black. There is considerable diversity among the over 200 distinct breeds of sheep. For details on a specific breeds consult http://pc200.anmsci.okstate.edu/BREEDS/SHEEP .
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
No structured trait data for this taxon yet.
Compounds documented for Ovis aries 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 509 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cholesterol | 260,000 mg/100 g | FooDB | |
| Elaidic acid | 12,900 mg/100 g | 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 Ovis aries 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 Ovis aries 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 545×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database · GoaT · Tree of Sex Database · GoaT · Animal Genome Size Database +1
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 Ovis aries. 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.
How it livedPBDB
Record type131 438 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.
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 65 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 | 67 |
| EL PASO, US | 61 |
| Berkeley, US | 36 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 23 |
| 730location not on record | 21 |
| Saint John, CA | 21 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 20 |
| Stockholm, SE | 18 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 18 |
| München, DE | 15 |
| Ilvolocation not on record | 14 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 14 |
| Chicago, US | 11 |
| Geneva, CH | 10 |
| Auckland, NZ | 10 |
| CASlocation not on record | 9 |
| Tilburg, NL | 9 |
| Oulu, FI | 9 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 9 |
| National Natural History Collectionslocation not on record | 8 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 7 |
| Liverpool, GB | 6 |
| New Haven, US | 6 |
| Los Angeles, US | 6 |
| North Carolina Museum of Natural Scienceslocation not on record | 6 |
| The Cattle Museumlocation not on record | 5 |
| Natural History Museum of Utahlocation not on record | 4 |
| University of Victorialocation not on record | 4 |
| Barcelona, ES | 4 |
| Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record | 4 |
| South Kensington, GB | 4 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 3 |
| 3 | |
| East Lansing, US | 3 |
| ASNHClocation not on record | 3 |
| Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record | 3 |
| San Diego, US | 3 |
| Brussels, BE | 3 |
| Provo, US | 2 |
| Kuopio, FI | 2 |
| Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| TMPMlocation not on record | 2 |
| Ithaca, US | 2 |
| Iowa City, US | 2 |
| Bourges, FR | 2 |
| Seattle, US | 2 |
| Tacoma, US | 2 |
| Helsinki, FI | 2 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 2 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 2 |
| University of Wyoming Museum of Vertebrateslocation not on record | 1 |
| Natural History Museum, Tribhuvan Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Fort Hays State University, Sternberg Museumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collectionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 1 |
| University of Nevada, Museum of Biologylocation not on record | 1 |
| Toronto, CA | 1 |
| Indiana State Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Tromsø, NO | 1 |
| Buenos Aires, AR | 1 |
| Albany, US | 1 |
| Bergen, NO | 1 |
| Sevilla, ES | 1 |
| Natural History Museum, Aarhus Denmarklocation not on record | 1 |
| Louisiana State University, Museum of Zoologylocation 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 Ovis aries 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.