Smallspotted catshark Scyliorhinus canicula iNaturalist and GBIF observations in the UK

This dataset contains metadata for Scyliorhinus canicula images collected from the open access platforms iNaturalist and GBIF. Inclusion criteria were record dates between 1st January 2008 and 1st April 2026 and locations within the UK. Initial datasets of 2,420 and 1,557 were filtered to usable datasets of 669 and 509 images for iNaturalist and GBIF, respectively. These were then visually assessed for colour aberrations including hypomelanosis and hypermelanosis to assess the relative applicability of each platform for investigating these phenomena in elasmobranchs. Each record in the dataset provides: [observation_ID] unique code assigned during this study [url] direct url to access original image at source [observed_on] observation date [day] observation date [month] observation date [year] observation date [latitude] latitude of record [longitude] longitude of record [coordinates_obscured] coordinates open access [quality_grade] image quality according to iNaturalist ranking system [shark (Y or N)] whether image shows a shark [shark] binary code [eggcase] binary code according to whether observation is an egg case [included_in_analysis (Y or N)] whether image was retained in study analysis [included_in_analysis] binary code whether image was retained in study analysis [hypomelanosis present] whether specimen was assessed as showing hypomelanosis [hypomelanosis_present] binary code whether hypomelanosis identified [hypermelanosis present] whether specimen was assessed as showing hypermelanosis [hypermelanosis_present] binary code whether hypermelanosis identified [New_exists_GBIF_04_01_2026] whether image stored on GBIF [New_exists] whether image stored on GBIF [Licence] image licence information Records retained in study analysis also provide: [view] angle of view of shark [amount_visible_scale] semi-quantitative estimate of proportion of body visible [deterioration_scale] semi-quantitative estimate of body condition [image_quality] qualitative image ranking [hypomelanosis_star_rating] qualitative reporting confidence based on deterioration and image quality Users of this dataset should respect the original licensing terms of each image when accessing them through the provided URLs.