Heads up: Some or all of the identifications affected by this split may have been replaced with identifications of Philander. This happens when we can't automatically assign an identification to one of the output taxa. Review identifications of Philander opossum 42585

Taxonomic Split 137379 (Committed on 01-05-2024)

Mammal Diversity Database (Version 1.11) (Citation)
Added by deboas on January 05, 2024 04:00 PM | Committed by deboas on January 05, 2024
split into

Comments

There are a few parts of the range of opossum s.l. that are not represented in the atlases eg Nicaragua and Peru - any idea which species occur there? If not, no worries as there are only a few records from there.

Posted by rjq 9 months ago

For Nicaragua, there is nothing mapped by Voss et al. 2018. It is probably vossi but could be melanurus, so best left blank unless we find another source.

For Peru, Voss et al. 2018 only mention P. canus, of these four. They also indicate records of P. andersoni, P. pebas and P. mcilhennyi, and say that many supposed records of P. opossum in Peru are actually P. pebas, so we might be better to let those go to genus.

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

Does make sense for both Nicaragua and Peru to go to genus. Based on the crude information in the papers I think the atlases are as good as they can be now, so I think OK to commit. This is a small split so does not need staff approval

Posted by rjq 9 months ago

Ok, many thanks for your help @rjq! I have just now committed the split. It's the largest and most complex one I've done so far, so hopefully it will run smoothyl

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

The range maps are not updated. The original range remains with P. opossum in the full extend, while the other three have no range maps.

Posted by ivanaebrova 9 months ago

Thanks @ivanaebrova. Yes, we still have three things to finalise with this split - updating the range maps, the taxon frameworks, and common names. See flag: https://www.inaturalist.org/flags/644839 If you can help with any of those it would be great! @edgar_crispino may also be able to help with the maps. If not I will do these, but I won't have time to do so for a few days

For now, I have deleted the range map from P. opossum, so as not to cause confusion.

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

Added the Taxon frameworks, the new species are available for Taxon framework relationships

Posted by rjq 9 months ago

Great, thank you!

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

I have no idea how range maps are edited (can anyone do that?). Anyway, this seems rather complicated case..
But generally, cloud thinks like that be solved before the split is committed? Lately, there have been several rather chaotic splits on inat..

Posted by ivanaebrova 9 months ago

@ivanaebrova Range maps are probably the most complex and time-consuming part of a split like this, because someone needs to edit them in GIS software, and we curators are all volunteers working on this in our spare time. The map above these comments will give you a pretty good idea of the distribution. @edgar_crispino let me know how you are getting on with the maps, and if you haven't had a chance to split them, I can do that this weekend.

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

@deboas got myself entangled in a series of matters that I thought I would solve quickly (not related to iNat), but since them I haven't been able to work on the maps or do any progress.

Posted by edgar_crispino 9 months ago

No worries, Edgar, I spent some time on it today and added the maps. There are still some uncertainties, so I had to make some assumptions in some places, and some observations fall outside the mapped range, but with the exception of Colombia, where I expanded the range of P. canus a lot to join two disparate areas, I thought it was better to leave the original P. opossum map as it was. Someone with more knowledge of these species can make further updates in the future.

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

@deboas I understand and genuinely appreciate the work. My point is that there's no rush to commit splits like this; it can wait until someone has the time to edit the maps, can't it? It's when the split is committed that users receive notifications and go to review the observations. It would be great to have the necessary information inside iNat already at that time.

Posted by ivanaebrova 9 months ago

Hi @ivanaebrova it's useful to get your perspective. Perhaps it's because I mostly curate insects and plants, which typically don't have range maps at all, that I don't tend to think of the range maps as being a very important part of the process. Understanding that there are users for whom these have greater relevance and would like to see them at the moment the split is committed is useful to know - I'll keep it in mind for future splits.

Posted by deboas 9 months ago

Add a Comment

Sign In or Sign Up to add comments

Gracias al apoyo de:

¿Quiere apoyarnos? Pregúntenos cómo escribiendo a snib.guatemala@gmail.com