Under “Annotations: Evidence of Presence”, would a piece of dead stony coral count as “Construction” or “Organism”? I would assume “Construction”… [image]

I would say organism, as it is explicitly not construction. Construction (within Animalia): Something created by an animal, made with or excavated from other materials. Examples of things that are Constructions: spider web, burrow, nest or hive, caddisfly larva casing, egg sac or egg case. Example…

Agreed with “organism” but tending more towards none. Due to how corals build their skeletons, I would consider this case to be the same as mollusc shells. Tiwane has said: [image] Shell - annotations unclear For a snail/bivalve, just mark it as dead. I’d choose organism for evidence of presenc…

I find it a bit odd that we can record “bone” for vertebrates but not “shell” for invertebrates. Endo- or exo-, it’s still a skeleton.

Most vertebrate observations are not of bones, but most shelled mollusk observations are of the shell. So adding that annotation doesn’t really help much for mollusks.

I’d mark it as “organism” and “dead” (if I were sure it was dead).

What about a pen with no ink? The pen is inside the cephalopod, so you don’t see it if the organism is live.

Should there be an annotation for pens?

See the current discussion on annotations in the process of being deliberated. New requests are not of high priority, so this will likely take a decade at iNaturalist’s current rate. https://inaturalist.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/151000191830-what-are-the-definitions-of-inaturalist…

"Construction" or "Organism" annotation for stony corals

General

nilshelstrom February 3, 2026, 6:24pm 4

Thanks, I didn’t remember ‘coral reef’ being explicitly mentioned in the definition.

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"Construction" or "Organism" annotation for stony corals

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