Sprattus sprattus
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources12 archives
Databases and archives Sprattus sprattus's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation14 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility171 375 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System311 156 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI1 496 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics88 specimens↗
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.
The European sprat (Sprattus sprattus), also known as bristling, brisling, garvie, garvock, Russian sardine, russlet, skipper or whitebait, is a species of small marine fish in the herring family Clupeidae. Found in European waters, it has silver grey scales and white-grey flesh. Specific seas in which the species occurs include the Irish Sea, Black Sea, Baltic Sea and Sea of the Hebrides.C.Michael Hogan, (2011) Sea of the Hebrides . Eds. P. Saundry & C.J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC. The fish is the subject of fisheries, particularly in Scandinavia, and is made into fish meal, as well as being used for human consumption. When used for food it can be canned, salted, breaded, fried, boiled, grilled, baked, deep fried, marinated, broiled, and smoked.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology1
Life cycle & reproduction3
Habitat & environment3
Uses & economy1
Other traits3
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 Sprattus sprattus 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 Sprattus sprattus 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 type482 531 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 institutions15 of 48 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| ICESlocation not on record | 7 946 |
| Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO)location not on record | 3 343 |
| RWSlocation not on record | 1 972 |
| Ilvolocation not on record | 620 |
| Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientalelocation not on record | 129 |
| Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record | 98 |
| DASSHlocation not on record | 65 |
| Stockholm, SE | 51 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 51 |
| 730location not on record | 49 |
| KULlocation not on record | 44 |
| VUB/UGentlocation not on record | 38 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 27 |
| Vlaams Instituut voor de Zeelocation not on record | 16 |
| ICATMARlocation not on record | 15 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 11 |
| FishBaselocation not on record | 10 |
| IZWOlocation not on record | 9 |
| South Kensington, GB | 8 |
| VUB/Ugentlocation not on record | 8 |
| ICM-CSIClocation not on record | 8 |
| 7 | |
| Helsinki, FI | 7 |
| PNHSlocation not on record | 6 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 5 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 5 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 4 |
| Cambridge, US | 3 |
| Toronto, CA | 3 |
| SNSB-Zoologische Staatssammlung Münchenlocation not on record | 3 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 3 |
| NIMRDlocation not on record | 2 |
| Kuopio, FI | 2 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 2 |
| Oulu, FI | 2 |
| Tromsø, NO | 2 |
| ARMS-MBONlocation not on record | 2 |
| Brussels, BE | 2 |
| CLOlocation not on record | 1 |
| Bonn, DE | 1 |
| Nizhyn Gogol State Universitylocation not on record | 1 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 1 |
| Universidade de Lisboa, Museu Bocagelocation not on record | 1 |
| IEO-COMA-CSIClocation not on record | 1 |
| Bergen, NO | 1 |
| CASlocation not on record | 1 |
| Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeirolocation not on record | 1 |
| Deutsches Zentrum fuer Marine Biodiversitaetsforschunglocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Sprattus sprattus 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.