I just came across an observation that had been labelled Sceloporus undulatus garmani by the observer. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/26136980. A couple of decades ago, this would have been the correct ID for spiny lizards at that locality. Currently, I don’t think that nomenclature is used for any spiny lizard and indeed there are no observation identified that way on iNat. So is this just a relic of a prior taxonomic arrangement that should be removed or am I missing something?
–mike
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I believe when this happens it’s usually an old or inactive taxon that wasn’t properly disabled after a split.
You can flag it for repair by going to the taxon page (https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/116140-Sceloporus-undulatus-garmani) and clicking “Curation” > “Flag for Curation”.
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thanks! I did that.
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I have no comments on the taxonomic history or range of this subspecies or the IDs on that observation, but in general, if you want to check for more information, use Taxonomy Details on the taxon page:
In this case, you can see it’s a direct match to a taxon in Reptile Database, which is iNat’s source for reptile taxonomy:
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I think that if the taxonomy is still useful and widespread, it should be used, but if it is never used, it can be removed from the system(ex. Monera)
One other thing about “no observation” taxa, and I hope it’s not too off topic–just a tip/issue I’ve encountered recently.
Lately I’ve noticed on Chrome that the taxon pages aren’t always displaying any observations in the top right quadrant (they still show up on the map at the bottom). I thought it was a bug until I started writing a report and realized it couldn’t be reproduced in an incognito browser, so it’s probably a cache/cookies problem on my end. So if anyone sees something that looks like this and it seems off, check your browser cache and try it in your browser’s private mode.
This problem doesn’t actually apply to this taxon though–it really does seem to have 0 observations.
Do you happen to have a Filter by Place set? (top right corner of each taxon page).
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WOW, yes I did. I don’t know when I set that filter, but when I’ve seen it recently I assumed it was just reporting my login location. Thank you!
edit: The filter stays in place across sessions and taxa–these things make sense now, but since it wasn’t (to me!) immediately obvious as a filter, that would have become a strange and cryptic problem without the tip. I hadn’t gotten around to clearing my own cache.
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definitely - it’s a really common issue:
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/make-it-clearer-when-someone-has-filter-by-place-set-on-the-taxon-detail-page/1985
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Thanks. I took it up with Reptile Database. We’ll see what happens.
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