https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2022.0395
For those not in the know: Bowfins were recently split! Genetic work revealed cryptic speices diversity in these iconic basal fishes. Amia calva is found in the southeast coastal plain, while Amia ocellicauda represents the bowfins of the Great Lakes, Mississippi basin, and Delaware river
Properly re-identifying every ocellicauda on inat as such, now that its in the inat database, is probably going to be a huge task so, posting this here to raise awareness! Go re-id your bowfin and any you’ve identified
Yeah it was fairly recent. Makes perfect sense though with how disconnected these two major bits of rivers are. Additionally male ocellicauda seem to display much stronger green in breeding dress than calva. I flagged A. calva to maybe get a name change going. I’ve seen the authors of the paper use “Eyespot Bowfin” I think, maybe “Eastern Bowfin” would be nice for calva?
The observations i am marking as Amia ocellicauda have 3 or more IDs, i need a little bit of help to overturn this, May i tag you at those observations? (My IDs are going maverick)
Yeah, though I usually link the paper with stuff like this + give a short blurb, usually helps it catch on (this is what I did identifying mis-id’d Scutigera coleoptrata as Thereuonema tuberculata)
"Bowfins were recently split into A. calva and A. ocellicauda.
Genetic work revealed cryptic species diversity in these fishes. Amia calva is found in the southeast coastal plain, while Amia ocellicauda represents the bowfins of the Great Lakes, Mississippi basin, and Delaware river
Since these can be split by location (“Amia calva is found in the southeast coastal plain, while Amia ocellicauda represents the bowfins of the Great Lakes, Mississippi basin, and Delaware river”), you should perform a taxon split, which will automatically change IDs made by other users. Please use a taxon flag to get the attention of a curator.
Just to provide some additional background information – the way the iNat database works requires that everyone use the same name to mean the same thing. So the way to correct this is not to add a new ID with a different circumscription, but instead to change the circumscription of the name for everyone. This is done with a taxon split.
I’m going to close this thread in favor of taxon flags.
