Marbled lungfish, Protopterus aethiopicus: 130,000 Mbp
Neuse River waterdog, Necturus lewisi: 118,000 Mbp
Mountain grasshopper, Podisma pedestris: 16,600 Mbp
Tree frog, Hyla arborea: 4,760 Mbp
Humpback whale,
Megaptera novaeangliae: 3,628 Mbp
Human,
Homo sapiens: 3,055 Mbp
Common garter snake,
Thamnophis sirtalis: 2,405 Mbp
American robin,
Turdus migratorius: 1,360 Mbp
Pufferfish, Takifugu
rubripes: 390 Mbp
Snail,
Biomphalaria glabrata: 930 Mbp
Fruit fly, Drosophila
melanogaster:
140 Mbp
10 Mbp
Dog and
cat genome
sizes are
very close
to humans’
10,000 Mbp
Area enlarged
100 Million base pairs (Mbp) 1,000 10,000 100,000
Insects
Mollusks
Amphibians
Reptiles
Birds
Mammals
Range of Genome Sizes within Animal Groups (dots correspond to genomes depicted below)
Genome Sizes of Select Animals (rings drawn to scale)
Cartilaginous Fishes
Bony Fishes
Graphic by Mark Belan
A Kaleidoscope of Genomes
The marbled lungfish holds the record for the largest animal genome on Earth ( colored rings, below ). The Neuse River waterdog,
a rare salamander, is not far behind. The human genome ( purple ring ) is just average size, about 43 times smaller than the lungfish’s
and 22 times larger than a fruit fly’s. Bird genomes have the narrowest range; amphibian genomes vary wildly ( chart ).
The genomes of insects and
mollusks vary considerably in size,
yet the range for vertebrates is
even broader—greatest for bony
fishes and amphib ians and least
for reptiles, birds and mam mals.
Sizes are measured in base pairs—
chemical building blocks of the
DNA that forms genes. The
complete set of an organism’s
genes constitutes its genome.
Source: Animal Genome
Size Database, 2021.
T. Ryan Gregory.
https://www.
genomesize.com ( data )