This map shows observation locations from iNaturalist.org animated by the date those observations were created (not when they were observed), kind of a geographical story of how the iNat community has grown over time.
Observations were exported from the iNaturalist database in November 2015, selecting only observations with locations observed after 2008-01-01 (around the time the site launched). Coordinates are all the public, so geoprivacy has been maintained, and all coordinates were rounded to 3 places to stay within CartoDB's data storage limitations. This dataset can be accessed and used at https://kueda.cartodb.com/tables/inaturalist_observation_by_date.
This map uses CartoDB's amazing Torque, a tool for making animated time series maps, as well as the CartoDB Dark Matter basemap. Both are available for free from CartoDB. The map interactivity uses Leaflet, and other controls use jQuery UI. Most of this code is simply a modification of CartoDB's own Torque example. Many thanks to CartoDB for providing all these free tools! Icons come from Font Awesome.