What is the scientific name of the European eel?

The scientific name of the European eel is Anguilla anguilla.

Anguilla anguilla is a catadromous fish: it spends much of its growth phase in freshwater or coastal habitats but migrates to the ocean to reproduce. Its life cycle begins as a leaf-shaped larva called a leptocephalus. After drifting toward Europe, it changes into a transparent glass eel, then a yellow eel, and finally a silver eel capable of ocean migration.

For centuries, scientists did not know where European eels reproduced, and their mating has still not been directly observed in the wild. Evidence indicates that mature eels migrate toward the Sargasso Sea, where they spawn and die; their larvae then travel back across the Atlantic with ocean currents.

The species is critically endangered, with threats including barriers such as hydroelectric dams, fishing, habitat loss, pollution, and parasites. Anguilla rostrata is the American eel, a related but separate species. Electrophorus electricus is the electric eel, which is not a true eel in the same taxonomic sense.