#2143 · 🐟 fish
Lesser Sand Lance
🇳🇱 Zandspiering ·Ammodytes tobianus
10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
- 1. © Pierre Corbrion · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- 2. © Poul Erik Rasmussen · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 3. © Георгий Виноградов (Georgy Vinogradov) · CC BY 4.0
- 4. © Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
- 5. © Charcos Companhia · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 6. © pavelfutoran · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 7. © Mike Evans · CC BY-NC 4.0
- 8. © Julien Renoult · CC BY 4.0
- 9. © Jamie O'Neill · CC BY 4.0
- 10. © Rita Jansen · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
what is it?
The lesser sand eel or sand lance ( Ammodytes tobianus ) is a species of fish in the sand lance family Ammodytidae. 9 in) long.
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 7 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist.
- 377 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1758 (268 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Lesser Sand Lance
- Nederlands
- Zandspiering
- scientific name
- Ammodytes tobianus
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Labriformes
- family
- Ammodytidae
- IUCN Red List
- DD · data deficient
- sightings in NL
- 7
- sightings in Europe
- 99
- sightings worldwide
- 377
- GBIF records in NL
- 3,314
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1758
IUCN in Dutch: onvoldoende gegevens. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 367966, Wikidata Q1536887, GBIF 2389991, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.