Tachybaptus ruficollis
(Pallas, 1764) · speciesAt a glance
Sources13 archives
Databases and archives Tachybaptus ruficollis's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation20 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 873 339 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System421 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI27 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics37 specimens↗
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 little grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis), also known as dabchick, is a member of the grebe family of water birds. The genus name is from Ancient Greek takhus "fast" and bapto "to sink under". The specific ruficollis is from Latin rufus "red" and Modern Latin -collis, "-necked", itself derived from Latin collum "neck". At 23 to in length it is the smallest European member of its family. It is commonly found in open bodies of water across most of its range.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology14
Life cycle & reproduction9
Diet & foraging6
Habitat & environment6
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 Tachybaptus ruficollis 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 Tachybaptus ruficollis 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.
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 Tachybaptus ruficollis. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph.
How it livedPBDB
Record type2 873 763 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 institutions31 of 55 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| NSMKlocation not on record | 314 |
| Salzburg, AT | 104 |
| Geneva, CH | 48 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 47 |
| Barcelona, ES | 45 |
| Liverpool, GB | 38 |
| Copenhagen, DK | 18 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 17 |
| MNHAHlocation not on record | 17 |
| Brussels, BE | 13 |
| Frankfurt am Main | 12 |
| Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record | 12 |
| RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record | 12 |
| Ann Arbor, US | 12 |
| Stockholm, SE | 11 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 10 |
| Helsinki, FI | 9 |
| Ugentlocation not on record | 9 |
| Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record | 9 |
| EEZAlocation not on record | 8 |
| Oulu, FI | 6 |
| Washington, US | 6 |
| Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record | 5 |
| New Haven, US | 5 |
| Seattle, US | 5 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 5 |
| IMEDEAlocation not on record | 5 |
| Zografou, GR | 4 |
| Kuopio, FI | 4 |
| Iowa City, US | 3 |
| Banyoles, ES | 3 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 2 |
| SMNHTAUlocation not on record | 2 |
| Tilburg, NL | 2 |
| Akita Prefectural Museumlocation not on record | 2 |
| Auckland, NZ | 2 |
| Bergen, NO | 2 |
| Natural History Museum, Aarhus Denmarklocation not on record | 2 |
| KU Leuvenlocation not on record | 2 |
| Zoologisches Museum Hamburglocation not on record | 2 |
| Wuzhou, CN | 2 |
| Tromsø, NO | 2 |
| Kristiansand, NO | 1 |
| 1 | |
| Toronto, CA | 1 |
| Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatarlocation not on record | 1 |
| Bourges, FR | 1 |
| BG-NMNHSlocation not on record | 1 |
| Winterthur, CH | 1 |
| München, DE | 1 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 1 |
| Cambridge, US | 1 |
| Denver, US | 1 |
| SNSDlocation not on record | 1 |
| Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology UB RASlocation 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 Tachybaptus ruficollis 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.