unique in nature and vast in scope — truly Canadian
Conserving Canada's Genomic Diversity
American beaver (Castor canadensis)

Follow the progress of the Canadian Biogenome Project

This chart follows the progress made by the Canadian Biogenome team to generate and deposit
400 high quality reference genomes for species in Canada that represent a diverse domain of life.

Updated on 05-Apr-2023.

Canadian Biogenome Project species list

The Canadian Biogenome Project deposits all generated data to the NCBI as BioProject 813333.

common name
scientific name
status
BioProject
data
American lobster
sampled
American plaice
sampled
Arctic char
sequenced
sra
Arctic lyre crab
sampled
Arctic surf clam
sequenced
sra
Atlantic lyre crab
sampled
Atlantic rock crab
sampled
Atlantic whitefish
sequenced
sra
BC Pteromalus (undescribed species)
sampled
Bent-nosed squat lobster
sampled
Blanding's turtle
sampled
Blood-red field ant
sequenced
sra
Blue racer
sampled
Capelin
sampled
Common sand dollar
sampled
Common starfish
sampled
Common sun star
sampled
Copper redhorse
sequenced
sra
Daisy brittle star
sampled
Daubed shanny
sampled
Eastern Massasauga rattlesnake
sampled
Eastern carpenter bee
sequenced
sra
Eastern foxsnake
sampled
Fat blood star
sampled
Ferruginous hawk
sampled
Green sea urchin
sampled
Greenland cockle
sequenced
sra
Grey ratsnake
sampled
Horse star
sampled
Jonah crab
sampled
Kentucky coffee tree
sampled
Liver fluke
sampled
Loggerhead sea turtle
annotated
Monterey sea lemon
sequenced
sra
Mud heart urchin
sampled
Mud star
sampled
Musk turtle
sampled
Northern fulmar
sampled
Northern leopard frog
sequenced
sra
Northern propeller clam
sequenced
sra
Northern scarlet star
sampled
Northern stone crab
sampled
Orange-footed sea cucumber
sampled
Pacific spiny dogfish
assembled
Polar sea star
sampled
Purple sunstar
sampled
Russian hat sponge
sampled
Scarlet psolus
sampled
Smooth skate
sampled
Snow crab
sampled
Sonoran pronghorn
sampled
Spotted turtle
sampled
Star-tipped reindeer lichen
sequenced
sra
Strawberry blossom weevil
sampled
Subalpine mountainsnail
sequenced
sra
Turban barnacle
sampled
White hake
sampled
Winter skate
sampled
Wood turtle
sampled

Updated on 05-Apr-2023.

Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis)

Declining Biodiversity, Management, Human Well-being

Canada possesses significant biodiversity, with ~80,000 plant and animal species in environments ranging from desert to the arctic. Many of these species are under threat due to rapid changes in climate and other human-led impacts on our environment.

The 2015 federal Wild Species report, which assessed ~27,500 Canadian species, identified ~6 per cent (1,659 species) as “May Be at Risk” in Canada

As of 2017-18, the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada’s (COSEWIC) assessments included 771 wildlife species in various risk categories; 18 assessed as extinct.

Assessments by Indigenous Peoples in Canada also reflect systemic change— Inuit report declining abundance, health and populations in several species.