Where Rock beauty has been recorded

Countries and areas with the most records (GBIF)

United States of America — 24,853 records; Puerto Rico — 8,774 records; Brazil — 1,447 records; Virgin Islands (U.S.) — 846 records; Colombia — 749 records; Mexico — 350 records; Guadeloupe — 342 records; Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba — 328 records; Martinique — 113 records; Bahamas — 104 records; Honduras — 103 records; Belize — 82 records; Cuba — 53 records; Cayman Islands — 51 records; Jamaica — 33 records.

Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 5211450) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=5211450&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY). Accessed 2026-09-25.

Marine regions with a WoRMS distribution record

Gulf of Mexico; Chinese Exclusive Economic Zone.

Source: WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=276017 (CC BY 4.0). Accessed 2026-09-25.

How to read this map

The map plots a sample of 3,000 of the 38,524 records, deduplicated to a half-degree grid, so dense areas do not merge into one blob. The sample covers 33 of the 43 countries or areas with records; the areas absent from the sample hold 69 records in total (Barbados, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), Haiti, Anguilla, French Guiana, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Nicaragua, Costa Rica).

10 records plotting inland were omitted: for a marine species those are almost always the holding institution's coordinates rather than a collection site.

Records show where the species has been observed and reported, not a modelled range.

Source: GBIF Occurrence Search (taxonKey 5211450) — https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?taxon_key=5211450&has_coordinate=true (records CC0 / CC BY); WoRMS distribution records (MarineRegions) — https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=276017 (CC BY 4.0); Natural Earth 110m basemap — https://www.naturalearthdata.com/ (public domain). Accessed 2026-09-25.