---
title: "INaturalist"
chunk: 3/3
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INaturalist"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:14:49.208201+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

In 2015, data from iNaturalist was used to show that the Hopkin's rose nudibranch (Ceratodoris rosacea) is moving northward.
Photos uploaded to iNaturalist in 2022 were used to confirm that the New Zealand hermit crab (Pagurus traversi) had been sighted in Tasmania and Victoria, Australia.
In February 2024, photos posted on iNaturalist were used to report on the use of artificial shells (primarily plastic caps) by hermit crabs
In April 2024, iNaturalist data was used to show that the range of Himalayan giant honey bees (Apis laboriosa) had expanded southward to Thailand for the first time.
iNaturalist data has also been used to investigate phenology, the study of how life changes with the seasons.
A 2023 field study comparing iNaturalist lichen records with expert identifications in Portugal and Italy found that fewer than half of the species logged by platform users matched the specialists' determinations, and roughly 70 % of species-level identifications that appeared only on iNaturalist were wrong. The authors concluded that unchecked observations—especially of taxonomically difficult groups such as lichens—should be treated with caution when used for research, and they recommended raising the agreement threshold for "research-grade" status and providing clear imaging guidelines to volunteers. In a 2024 review of Red List practice for lichenized fungi, the authors cautioned that iNaturalist records are often difficult to verify from photographs alone and therefore should usually be excluded from lichen conservation assessments unless the species can be identified confidently from images or the observation has been expert-verified.

=== Discovery and rediscovery ===
Other published research focuses on the description of new species or rediscovery of species previously considered extinct. For example:

A species of snail, Myxostoma petiverianum, not documented since 1905, was rediscovered in Vietnam based on a photo taken in 2014 and uploaded to iNaturalist.
In 2013, a citizen scientist in Colombia uploaded a photo of a poison dart frog, which researchers determined was a previously unrecognized species now known as Andinobates cassidyhornae.
In 2023, a species of mantis first discovered with the aid of iNaturalist was named Inimia nat so that its abbreviated form, I. nat, would be a word play that pays homage to iNaturalist.
The first-ever wild-specimen photograph of the New Britain goshawk was posted to iNaturalist in March 2024. The Colombian weasel, the rarest neotropical carnivore, was seen for the first time in the 21st century when an iNaturalist user uploaded snapshots of the weasel exploring a privy.
Two teenagers in California used iNaturalist observations of unfamiliar scorpions as the first step in their eventual description of two new species (Paruroctonus soda and Paruroctonus conclusus).
The frosted phoenix moth of New Zealand, feared extinct, was "rediscovered" when a Swedish birder who was in town to see kiwi put up a light to attract moths and snapped a casual photo of an insect that had parked itself under a lawn chair on his hotel balcony; his upload to iNaturalist was the first time the moth had been seen alive in 65 years.
A commuter in London uploaded an observation of an insect on her bag to iNaturalist, which allowed it to be identified as a plane lace bug, Corythucha ciliata. This was the first recorded observation of the invasive species in the United Kingdom in about 18 years, and the observation sparked a national monitoring campaign to determine the spread of the insect in the country.
In December 2024, a new population of critically endangered Canterbury knobbled weevils (Hadramphus tuberculatus) was discovered after a farmer in Ashurton Lakes, New Zealand posted a picture of weevils he had discovered on a speargrass plant. The weevils were previously known only to live in one other location about 80 km (50 mi) away, and the population in that location was considered to be critically low.
A presumed extinct Australian plant species, Ptilotus senarius, was resurrected to extant and rare status based on an observation uploaded to iNaturalist in June 2025.

=== Morphology ===
Other research has focused on the morphology or coloration of species observations. For example, a study in 2019 assessed the relationship between wing coloration and temperature in the dragonfly species Pachydiplax longipennis.

=== DNA barcoding ===
Mycologists running community-managed high-throughput fungal DNA barcoding labs published 45,000 DNA sequences between 2016 and 2023, many via iNaturalist, which allows for association of specimen photographs and geolocations with DNA sequences. Using iNat "engages experts within the community. This facilitates open peer review and public feedback among professional and amateur mycologists." As of December 2025, there were more than 7,600 fungi species on iNat with associated DNA barcodes. In December 2025, iNaturalist launched a "provisional name" field on a pilot basis, allowing expert contributors to tag DNA-barcoded fungi observations of what are likely new species that have not yet been formally described and named with a staff-created standardized temporary species name such as Calonarius sp. 'CA03'. (Identifications of formally undescribed plant galls, sans DNA, are currently associated in a similar way, with superficially fuzzy galls appearing on chestnut oak leaves, for instance, being tagged by a unified, externally defined name like q-montana-fuzzy-sphere-cluster.)

== Graphs ==

== Notes ==

== References ==

== External links ==

Official website