A cryptogenic species (" cryptogenic" being derived from Greek " κρυπτός", meaning hidden, and " γένεσις", meaning origin) is a species whose origins are unknown. The cryptogenic species can be an animal or plant, including other kingdoms or domains, such as fungi, algae, bacteria, or even viruses. In ecology, a cryptogenic species is one which may be either a

native species In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...

or an

introduced species An introduced species, alien species, exotic species, adventive species, immigrant species, foreign species, non-indigenous species, or non-native species is a species living outside its native distributional range, but which has arrived ther ...

, clear evidence for either origin being absent. An example is the Northern Pacific seastar (''Asterias amurensis'') in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

.NIMPIS Database
/ref> In palaeontology, a cryptogenic species is one which appears in the fossil record without clear affinities to an earlier species.

See also

References

Further reading