#2326 · 🐟 fish
American Eel
🇳🇱 Amerikaanse paling ·Anguilla rostrata
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
The American eel ( Anguilla rostrata ) is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. ) are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. The American eel has a slender snakelike body that is covered with a mucous layer, which makes the eel appear to be naked and slimy despite the presence of minute scales. A long dorsal fin runs from the middle of the back...
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
- No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
- 4,620 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named by Charles Alexandre Lesueur in 1821 (205 years ago).
- Listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.
fact sheet
- English
- American Eel
- Nederlands
- Amerikaanse paling
- scientific name
- Anguilla rostrata
- class
- Actinopterygii
- order
- Anguilliformes
- family
- Anguillidae
- IUCN Red List
- EN · endangered
- sightings in NL
- 0
- sightings worldwide
- 4,620
- GBIF records in NL
- 0
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1821 by Charles Alexandre Lesueur
IUCN in Dutch: bedreigd. Blank means the sources don't say.
relatives· Anguillidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 49219, Wikidata Q469632, GBIF 5212956, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.