Melania García-Calderón‡, Paulina Sepa-Egas‡, C. Miguel Pinto‡Corresponding author: C. Miguel Pinto ( miguel.pinto@fcdarwin.org.ec ) © Melania García-Calderón, Paulina Sepa-Egas, C. Miguel Pinto. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
García-Calderón M, Sepa-Egas P, Pinto CM (2025) Marine citizen science: filling the gaps in the distribution of a colorful sea slug (Nudibranchia, Polyceridae) in the Galápagos. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e161580 |  |
In the Galápagos Islands, research on the distribution of marine invertebrates is constrained by the limited availability of specimen-based data and reliable observations. In this study, we used citizen science to identify new localities for Tyrannodoris leonis (Nudibranchia, Polyceridae), a colorful sea slug species found in the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR). We circulated a digital flyer to encourage local and international divers to share their sightings of the species. Additionally, we reviewed records available on the iNaturalist platform from 2018 to 2024. As a result, we obtained 19 new records of T. leonis and updated its distribution map in the GMR with eight newly documented localities. This study highlights the value of citizen science as a complementary tool to museum-based research, contributing to a better understanding of species distribution in marine ecosystems.