Favorite identification debates?

General
23

Those two young women who run Found Feathers are so, so, fantastic!

24

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2671588
perhaps not a debate, but a lot of cheerful dialog (found via recent post by @Mercedes-Fletcher on animal camouflage)

25

This discussion about a lake ball (= larch ball or Kedron ball) – a new thing for me – was interesting:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/62156655

26

You’ll find some good debates in the observations posted to this project: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/weirdwildwonders

This one is pretty entertaining!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/110810197

27

That one about the Chickpea is pretty interesting!

28

OMG that made my day xD

29

Thank you!

30

Awesome thank you.

31

love this thank you.

32

love these thank you!!

33

I remember that Mola discussion:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/20509929

34

Thanks for finding that, I didn’t have time to look for it at the time. I have just managed to find the Physalia discussion
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/16163942

35

@marina_gorbunova Don’t click to this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/105476883

Or well you can.

Spoiler alert: It’s just me senselessly ruining the observation insisting on a wrong ID… oh, and you trying to enlighten me.

36

Here’s one I recently stumbled across that proved educational as well as entertaining: fern vs. amphibian eggs? https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/4919474

37

I’d frame things in terms of the limitations of using photographs for IDs. There are many species that cannot be identified by photographs but rather require microscopic or genetic analysis. Other species can only be identified by multiple photos from different angles of the same individual (I learned this photographing sweat bees).

There’s a larger issue in the perception of a 2d image to understand a 3d object. In many of the difficult photos there is no scale cue that would otherwise give a useful point of reference. Photos can be deceptive in so many ways.

38

I have found that identifying mosses, it can be needed to identify some species.

39

In case anyone hasn’t seen it, I wrote an Identifier Profile about them: https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/50801-identifier-profiles-featherenthusiast-and-karakaxa

40

Oh, that’s a delight. Maybe we need a new State of Matter: ‘Tinned.’

41

Look up Gerald the muskrat :)

42

The most faved observation on whole iNat.