How do Identifications Work?

Is it a record of a fox, or a bald eagle, or a snail? On iNaturalist, you can weigh in by adding identifications to observations.

Each identification helps confirm or improve the community's opinion on the organism that the observation represents. We call this link between an observation and its organism the Observation Taxon. If the Observation Taxon is precise enough and has community support, an observation can become a Research quality record of that organism at a location and time.

To understand how this works, let's walk through a real example observation to see how the Observation Taxon was progressively shaped by several individual identifications. The cartoon to the right is a simplified version of the Tree of Life for this example. When adriane4 posted the observation, they added a coarse identification of the class "Insects".

Here are the parts of adrianee4's observation when it was posted:

1. The Observation Taxon is Insects (Class Insecta). The "Needs ID" label indicates that the Observation Taxon can be confirmed or improved.

2. The username of the observer (adrianne4).

3. The date of the encounter.

4. The photo is evidence of what the observer encountered.

5. The location of the encounter on a map.

6. This observation has one identification, made by the observer, adrianne4.

7. Because this observation has just one identification, it has no "Community ID" (also called the "Community Taxon").

Next, the user bbunny adds an identification of the family Ladybird Beetles. This identification is in agreement with adrianne4's original identification but is more precise. The Observation Taxon rolls forward to reflect bbunny's leading ID, but the Community ID sits at class "Insects", which is the point of consensus among adrianne4 & bbunny's identifications.

8. Identifications are listed chronologically with bbunny's identification listed after adrianne4's initial identification.

9. Both adrianne4 and bbunny are in agreement that this observation is of an Insect. This point of consensus is called the Community ID.

Next, adrianne4 adds a new identification of the species Three-banded Ladybird. Now both adrianne4 and bbunny are in agreement that the observation is in the family Ladybird Beetles. The Community ID moves up the Tree to reflect this new point of consensus and the Observation Taxon moves to adrianne4's leading ID.

10. adrianne4's more recent identification of the species Three-banded Ladybird is listed here. Note that their earlier identification is no longer active and is crossed out. 

11. The Community ID is now at the new point of consensus: the family Ladybird Beetles.

12. Meanwhile, the Observation Taxon rolls forward to adrianne4's leading ID.

Next, silversea_starsong adds an identification of the species Seven-spotted Ladybird.

bbunny's coarser identification of the family Ladybird Beetles is consistent with either Seven-spotted Ladybird or Three-banded Ladybird. This point of consensus becomes the new Community ID and the Observation Taxon.

13. An identification of Seven-spotted Ladybird is added.

14. The Community ID shifts to the family rank to reflect the point of consensus.

15. The Observation Taxon also shifts to family rank.

Next, two more  people: bug_eric and edanko add identifications of the species Seven-spotted Ladybird.

More than 2/3 (3 out of 4) of the IDs on Seven-spotted Ladybird and Three-banded Ladybird are on the former. The weight of these 3 IDs pulls the Observation Taxon and the Community ID down to Seven-spotted Ladybird.

16. There are now 3 IDs of Seven-spotted Ladybird.

17. The weight (>2/3) of these IDs pulls the Community ID to Seven-spotted Ladybird.

18. As well as the Observation Taxon. Because the Community ID is at rank species, this observation is now Research Grade.