Ardilla Gris Oriental vs

Sciurus carolinensis compared with Cocconeis disculus

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Ardilla Gris Oriental
Kingdom	Animalia (Animals)	Chromista (Chromista)
Phylum	Chordata (Chordates)	Ochrophyta (Ochrophyta)
Class	Mammalia (Mammals)	Bacillariophyceae (Bacillariophyceae)
Order	Rodentia (Rodents)	Achnanthales (Achnanthales)
Family	Sciuridae (Squirrels)	Cocconeidaceae
Genus	Sciurus (Tree Squirrels)	Cocconeis
Species	Sciurus carolinensis	Cocconeis disculus

Conservation Status

Ardilla Gris Oriental

NE — Not Evaluated

Trend: Stable →

NE — Not Evaluated

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Ardilla Gris Oriental
Diet	Omnivore	—
Average Lifespan	6 years	—
Average Length	25 cm	—
Average Weight	500 g	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Ardilla Gris Oriental

Habitat

Typically found in a wide range of habitat types.

Range

Widely distributed across Africa (South Africa), Asia (Indonesia), Europe (10 countries), and North America (Mexico, United States).

Habitat

Native to Europe and South America, inhabiting ecosystems characteristic of the region.

Range

Distributed across Brazil, Norway, and Sweden.

Ardilla Gris Oriental

Native to eastern North America but successfully introduced to Europe and other regions, the eastern gray squirrel is a medium-sized arboreal rodent weighing up to 600 g. Highly adaptable, thriving in forests, parks, and urban gardens, gray squirrels cache thousands of nuts and seeds each autumn, inadvertently planting trees through forgotten caches. In Britain, they have largely displaced the native red squirrel by outcompeting them for food.

Cocconeis disculus is a freshwater and brackish-water diatom in the family Cocconeidaceae, belonging to the class Bacillariophyceae—the diatoms, a group of unicellular photosynthetic algae encased in ornate silica cell walls called frustules. Like all members of the genus Cocconeis, C. disculus is an adnate, epiphytic species, meaning it lives attached to substrates—typically the surfaces of aquatic macrophytes, filamentous algae, and sediment particles—rather than living freely in the water column. The frustule of Cocconeis species is distinctive in its bilateral symmetry and the characteristic difference between its two valves: the rapheless valve (RV) lacks the raphe slit present on the raphe valve (RV), a feature used in species identification. Cocconeis disculus has been documented from freshwater bodies across South America and various parts of the Northern Hemisphere, with distribution reflecting its tolerance of a range of water temperatures and nutrient conditions. Diatoms like C. disculus are foundational components of aquatic food webs, fixing carbon through photosynthesis and providing a nutritious food source for grazing invertebrates, protists, and larval fish. The species also contributes to the biosilica cycle through the production and dissolution of its silica frustule. As a benthic, substrate-attached organism, Cocconeis disculus serves as a sensitive bioindicator of water quality conditions in freshwater monitoring programs. Its conservation status is not formally evaluated.