Will iNaturalist allow upload of prehistoric species/fossils in the future?

[kemper]

Well, in the grand span of human and evolutionary history, 82 years ago is pretty recent.

[fffffffff]

Of course they’re posting museum specimens, where else they’re getting things from 100 years ago, it’s not what their grandparents collected, it’s usually a type specimen or just some already registered everywhere specimens. At least it’s what is seen in oldest iNat records, of course if you have something that is totally new, then I’d say create a separate account for your relative or whoever collected those.

[charlie]

@fffffffff

by your words anyone can just go to museum, photograph everything with dates and places and bam – have thousands of new species that they maybe never saw at all alive, not even in 1905.

That’s already allowed, albeit kinda pointless. You just have to mark them as not wild and map them to the museum

[fffffffff]

Yes, of course, but I’m telling about needs ID/RG type of observations (sorry, forgot how it’s called in English on iNat), I already said that making them casual is the way to upload such observations, as you didn’t see them at the time you post, you weren’t even alive back then.

[tiwane]

To be clear, iNaturalist “allows” observations of fossils, but they do need be marked as not recent evidence of an organism because iNat’s not really a place for discussing and mapping fossils - it’s about extant or recently-extinct organisms and getting people out to enjoy, learn about, and document the wildlife (“wildlife” in the broad sense) around them. So it’s unlikely that iNat will ever make fossil observations a priority on iNaturalist. I recommend using other sites like myFOSSIL for fossils.

[jasonhernandez74]

@fffffffff

where else they’re getting things from 100 years ago, it’s not what their grandparents collected,

Actually, it might be. If you have a vintage sepia tone photo of your grandpa on a fishing trip, showing off his stringer of fish, those fish are organisms that he personally observed.

There are currently zero observations of Dusky Seaside Sparrow. But that only became extinct in the 1980s, so, theoretically, someone who was observing back then could have archival photos of it. We have members old enough to have observed it alive.

[fffffffff]

Oh, what might be? I’m telling abbout facts as I saw those observations an saw authors they mentioned, even if it is your grandparent, you shouldn’t upload it under your account, if you wanna talk about their relatives, please don’t answer, I’m tired of it, it’s not true.