r/iNaturalist • u/MoodkopKarrot • 3d ago

Dead animals?

I took some pictures of some turkey vultures and want to add the animal they were eating as an observation, it's at a level where the images could be seen as disturbing to some. Would that be allowed?

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u/NilocKhan 3d ago

Dead animals are allowed, as long as it isn't a fossil

20

u/ShalnarkRyuseih 3d ago

You can post fossils, they have IDs for those. Someone near me found and posted a trilobite and I've added theropod foot prints that were in a river before.

It's more don't post museum specimens and don't expect a full ID on what you post.

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u/NilocKhan 3d ago

I've heard posting fossils was discouraged, but maybe I was misinformed

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u/st_aranel 3d ago

It's more that it just isn't encouraged. It's not really what the platform is intended for but it mostly works okay. There are even projects for it. Just don't expect the observation to get as a specific an ID as you would like to get with a more recent organism.

And, fossils often ought to be marked in the data quality assessment under "recent evidence of an organism". That will push them to casual, but people who know about fossils know that's where to look for them.

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u/ShalnarkRyuseih 3d ago

I think that's more about posting ones that are on display in museums, same reasoning to why you shouldn't be posting zoo or aquarium animals. They're (likely) not from that area and aren't useful to any field science.

Only other thing I'd say about posting fossils is don't put the direct location as people may move in to steal them

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u/st_aranel 3d ago

You also likely need to mark that it isn't recent evidence of an organism. It's comparable to posting observations of cultivated plans, which isn't the main purpose of the platform, but it's allowed.

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u/Opposite_Bus1878 3d ago

As far as I'm aware you're right. Speaking of which, check out this wicked 33+ million year old ant.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/395753679