Two days ago, you added years of description to some vespid genera (here); thanks! Unhappily, you happened to type an extra digit for the last year you added; and since I do not have access to your sources, I cannot correct it. Regards,JoergenB (talk)14:42, 2 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. TheWikipedia:The Great Britain/Ireland Destubathon is planned for March 2020, a contest/editathon to eliminate as many stubs as possible from all 134 counties. Amazon vouchers/book prizes are planned for most articles destubbed from England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland and Northern Ireland and whoever destubs articles from the most counties out of the 134. Sign up on page if interested in participating, hope this will prove to be good fun and productive, we have over 44,000 stubs! I don't know if you work on nature stubs found in the British Isles but as you were so productive in the African Destubathon I thought I should alert you!♦Dr. Blofeld12:22, 2 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]
In a major milestone for theautomated taxobox system, more taxa articles now use automatic taxoboxes than manual ones. Particularly robust groups for automatic taxoboxes are turtles, primates, birds, rodents, amphibians and reptiles, sharks, and bivalves, with each project adopting automatic taxoboxes at rates greater than 95%. Only the fungi, arthropods, and microbiology projects had automatic taxobox adoption rates less than 25%. Read more in the1 January update.
Thanks to userTrappist the monk, all citations to the IUCN usingTemplate:Cite web orTemplate:Cite journal have now been swapped toTemplate:Cite iucn. This will prevent a recurrence of massive link failure should the IUCN change its URL format again. That does not address the14.5k articles that cite the IUCN without the use of templates. For more background discussion, seehere andhere.
Vital Articles
Thevital articles project on English Wikipedia began in 2004 when an editor transferred a list from Meta-Wiki:List of articles every Wikipedia should have. The first incarnation of the list became what is now level 3. As of 2019, there are 5 levels of vital articles:
Level 1: the 10 most vital articles (2009)
Level 2: the 100 most vital articles (2009)
Level 3: the 1,000 most vital articles (2004)
Level 4: the 10,000 most vital articles (2006)
Level 5: the 50,000 most vital articles (2017)
Each level is inclusive of all previous levels, meaning that the 1,000 Level 3 articles include those listed on Levels 2 and 1. Below is an overview of the distribution of vital articles, and the quality of the articles. While the ultimate goal of the vital articles project is to have Featured-class articles, I also considered Good Articles to be "complete" for the purposes of this list.
Animals (1,148 designated out of projected 2,400)
Cnidarians (5/8):62.5% complete
Echinoderms (3/6):50% complete
Insects (30/70):42.9% complete
Invertebrates + others (10/27):37% complete
Other arthropods (3/10):30% complete
Reptiles (25/85):29.4% complete
Amphibians (6/22):27.3% complete
Porifera (1/4):25% complete
Mammals (68/319):21.3% complete
Mollusks (2/19):21.1% complete
Arachnids (3/17):17.6% complete
Birds (33/187):17.6% complete
Animal breeds and hybrids (19/112):17% complete
Crustaceans (3/25):12% complete
Fishes (11/134):8.2% complete
Agnatha (0/4):0% complete
Plants, fungi, and other organisms (510 designated out of projected 1,200)
Fungi (4/33):12.1% complete
Other organisms—Archaea, Bacteria, Eukarya (5/62):8.1% complete
Vegetables (6/96):6.7% complete
Monocots (2/35):5.7% complete
Edible fruits (5/95):5.3% complete
Non-flowering plants (1/30):3.3% complete
Edible seeds, grains, nuts (1/69):1.4% complete
Non-monocots (1/88):1.1% complete
Carnivorous plants (0/2):0% complete
Many articles have yet to be designated for Tree of Life taxonomic groups, with 1,942 outstanding articles to be added. Anyone can add vital articles to the list! Restructuring may be necessary, as the only viruses included as of yet are under the category "Health". The majority of vital articles needing improvement are level 5, but here are some outstanding articles from the other levels:
... that the extinct giantthresher sharkAlopias palatasi is the only one of its kind to possess serrated teeth(pictured)? (1 January)
... thatDogor, an 18,000-year-old canine puppy, may represent a common ancestor of the dog and the wolf? (2 January)
... that theCaton Oak inLancashire, England, was reputed to be a site of worship bydruids? (4 January)
... that theLuEsther T. Mertz Library(pictured), one of the world's largest botanical libraries, had 6.5 million plant specimens and 75 percent of the world's systematic botany literature in 2002? (4 January)
... that Australian biologistLee Berger identifiedBatrachochytrium dendrobatidis as being responsible for the decline and extinction of hundreds of amphibian species? (5 January)
... that the beetleZaitzevia thermae has a total habitat of less than 35 square metres (380 sq ft) around one hot spring inMontana? (6 January)
... that theAnatolian frog is exported from Turkey to France, Italy and Switzerland for food, and is considered by theIUCN to be anear-threatened species? (6 January)
... that the stems and leaves of the endangeredHolloway's crystalwort look as if they are covered in sugar crystals? (8 January)
... that a severe infestation of thepalm weevil borer can kill its host palm? (9 January)
... thata mandarin duck(pictured) that appeared in New York City'sCentral Park became an international celebrity, with followers whom theAssociated Press called "quackarazzi"? (10 January)
... that the femaleSavannah darter lays clutches of sticky eggs that she buries in gravel or sand? (12 January)
... that theMalayan banded pitta is threatened by the destruction of its forest habitat and by being targeted for the illegal trade in birds? (12 January)
... that in 2007, a rescuedEuropean bison calf dubbedPubal grew so attached to humans in southeastern Poland that he could not be successfully reintegrated back into the wild? (13 January)
... that evolutionary biologistRebecca Kilner has found that mites can giveburying beetles a competitive advantage? (13 January)
... thatjellyfish blooms can clog coastal power plants, causing losses of tens of thousands of US dollars per day? (14 January)
... thatAnisocentropus krampus wasdescribed in the same paper as other insects with monstrous names likeGanonema dracula andAnisocentropus golem? (16 January)
... that in France, the beetleAepus marinus is restricted to a narrow strip of the beach near the high-water mark? (17 January)
... that thepalm scale was first found on anendemic species of palm on the island ofRéunion, but now infests plants in at least 78families around the world? (17 January)
... that artistSalvador Dalí claimed that his petocelot(both pictured) was an ordinary domestic cat that he had "painted over in anop art design"? (18 January)
... thata whale found in westernVermont has presented further evidence of glaciation inNew England? (19 January)
... that hosts of thepassionvine bug(example pictured) include coffee, citrus, mung bean, squash, and mango? (21 January)
... that thelizard goby holds on to rocks in fast-flowing water by means of a "sucker" formed from two fins? (21 January)
... that the egg sacs of the newly discoveredPhinda button spider are made of bright purple silk that fades to grey when it dries? (22 January)
TheGreat Britain and Ireland Destubathon began on 1 March and runs for the entire month. Expansion of any stubs related to Great Britain and Ireland is welcome, inclusive of taxa. There are also monetary prizes for winners of specific categories in the form of Amazon gift cards. PetScan could be useful here to find the intersection of Stub-class articles and other categories:Biota of Ireland;Biota of Great Britain;Biota of the Isle of Man
Immunofluorescence staining of a mouse intestine, "Microscopy" (Australia)
Bat scientist Lauri Lutsar determining the age of a bat, "People In Science" (Estonia)
Close-up view of a bioluminescent beetleElateroidea, "Wildlife and Nature" (France)
Coral fluorescence, "General Category" (Russia)
Paleoanthropologist at work, "People in Science" (Italy)
Ammonite fossil from Morocco, "General Category" (Spain)
Yellow orange-tip male (Ixias pyrene), "Wildlife and Nature" (India)
The spread of coronavirus across Wikipedia
With the outbreak of a novel coronavirus dominating news coverage, Wikipedia content related to the virus has seen much higher interest. Tree of Life content of particular interest to readers has included viruses, bats, pangolins, and masked palm civets. Viruses saw the most dramatic growth in readership:Coronavirus, which was the 105th most popular virus article in December 2019 with about 400 views per day, averaged over a quarter million views each day of January 2020. Total monthly viewership of the top-10 virus articles ballooned from about 1.5 million to nearly 20 million.
From October 2019 – December 2019, the top ten most popular bat articles fluctuated among 16 different articles, with the December viewership of those 10 articles at 209,280. ForJanuary 2020, three articles broke into the top-10 that were not among the 16 articles of the prior three months:Bat as food,Horseshoe bat, andBat-borne virus. Viewership of the top-10 bat articles spiked nearly 300% to 617,067 in January.
While bats have been implicated as a possible natural reservoir ofSARS-CoV-2, an intermediate host may be the bridge between bats and humans.Pangolins have been hypothesized as the intermediate host for the virus, causinga large spike in typical page views of 2-3k each day up to more than 60k in a day.Masked palm civets, the intermediate host ofSARS, saw amodest yet noticeable spike in page views as well, from 100 to 300 views per day to as many as 5k views per day.
With an increase in viewers came an increase in editors. In an interview, longtime virus editorAwkwafaba identified the influx of editors as the biggest challenge in editing content related to the coronavirus. They noted that these newcomers include "novices who make honest mistakes and get tossed about a bit in the mad activity" as well as "experienced editors who know nothing about viruses and are good researchers, yet aren't familiar with the policies of WP:ToL or WP:Viruses." Disruption also increased, withextended confirmed protection (also known as the 30/500 rule, which prevents editors with fewer than 30 days tenure and 500 edits from making edits and is typically used on a very small subset of Wikipedia articles) temporarily applied toCoronavirus and still active onTemplate:2019–20 coronavirus outbreak data. New editors apparently seeking to correct misinformation continuously edited the articleBat as food to remove content related to China:Videos of Chinese people eating bat soup were misrepresented to be current or filmed in China, when at least one such video was several years old and filmed in Palau. However, reliable sources confirm that bats are eaten in China, especially Southern China, so these well-meaning edits were mostly removed.
Another level of complexity was added by the fluctuating terminology of the virus.Over a dozen moves and merges were requested within WikiProject Viruses. To give you an idea of the musical chairs happening with article titles, here are the move histories of two articles:
Awkwafaba noted that "the main authorities,WHO andICTV, don't really have a process for speedily naming a virus or disease." Additionally, they have different criteria for naming. They said, "I remember in a move discussion from the article then called Wuhan coronavirus that a virus name cannot have a geographical location in it, but this is a WHO disease naming guideline, and not an ICTV virus naming rule. ICTV may have renamedFour Corners virus toSin Nombre orthohantavirus but there are still plenty of official virus species names that don't abide by WHO guidelines."
February DYKs
Thistle broomrape
Painting of the Shelton Oak
FemaleA. diabolicum flowers with curled stigmas
... that juvenileornate surgeonfish are quite different in colouring from the adult fish? (1 February)
... thatQuarry Moor is one of the few locations in England where the rare parasitic plantthistle broomrape(example pictured) grows? (2 February)
... that the hollowShelton Oak(pictured) nearShrewsbury was so big that a party of eight could dance aquadrille inside it? (3 February)
... that growth in the brown seaweedZanardinia typus occurs at the base of the hairs that grow around the edge of the frond? (4 February)
... that entomologistKarim Vahed led the team that founda cricket species in which thetestes accounted for 14 percent of the insect's body mass? (4 February)
... that although thebird of paradise fly was first described from anAngophora tree, it is quite likely that this is not the insect's host plant? (11 February)
Hi, can you source the distances in the lead? Use Google maps and check if you can. You might want to archive your talk page sometime, it's huge!♦Dr. Blofeld13:20, 9 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@Dr Blofeld: Done, fromHansard no less. What aboutGladsmuir andAndrena barbilabris? I make my counts out as 137 counties (50 England + 33 Scotland + 35 Ireland + 22 Wales) and a total of 168 articles (50 England + 61 Scotland + 22 Wales + 35 Ireland) as @ 17:13 31 March 2020. I will have all the Welsh counties done today and will move onto the island my paternal ancestors came from.Quetzal1964 (talk)08:35, 25 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Traffic report:The only thing that matters in the world Going to movies and sport stadiums is history, and readers turn to Wikipedia for crucial medical information and updates.
A year of the Tree of Life Newsletter: Thank you to all the subscribers who have been with us from the beginning or have joined along the way, and to those who have contributed their time to producing this newsletter. I've really valued your ideas, copyediting, and willingness to be interviewed. Onwards and upwards!
April marks the start of theGAN Backlog Drive, which continues through the end of May. The goal of this backlog elimination drive is to cut the number of outstanding GANs, in particular those which have been in the queue 90 days or more. All hands welcome, new and old.
The finalists of the US Wiki Science Competition havebeen announced. Illustrating Wikipedia articles can be challenging, so these new images represent a chance to find suitable media for our articles. For all images uploaded in the Wiki Science Competition, seehere and click "all images" in the upper right corner.
Fly's mouth and tongue (Microscopy)
Killer whales hunting a crabeater seal (Wildlife)
Fossilized tooth of aSqualicorax shark (Microscopy)
Please describe how you went about creating WikiProject COVID-19. What made you think a project was needed?
I've been following the outbreak and editing related Wikipedia articles since January. I'm not particularly interested in infectious diseases or viruses, but I've been to China a few times and wanted to monitor the outbreak's impact on society as well as the government's response. For a while, I was casually tracking updates to the first couple pages about the outbreak. Then a pattern began to emerge as February saw the creation of separate articles about outbreaks inIran,Italy, andSouth Korea. New Wikipedia articles continued being created in early March, and the outbreak was recognized as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11. Knowing there would many more articles, lists, templates, illustrations, and other pages on Wikipedia, I created WikiProject COVID-19 on March 15. My goal was simply to create a temporary or permanent space for editors to collaborate, communicate, and focus specifically on content related to this ongoing pandemic. I'm a member of many WikiProjects and have created several before, but this one definitely felt morenecessary andurgent. Most WikiProjects unite editors with similar interests, which is fine and serves a purpose, but I felt this project could have a much biggerreal life impact. I don't think I was alone in my thinking; the project had80 members by March 20 and 100 members by March 26.
Who or what was invaluable to getting off the ground?
If I'm being honest, getting this project off the ground required little work on my part. All I did was create the space and post invitations to existing talk pages related to the outbreak. Editors joined the project very quickly; 30 members joined on the same day I started the project, and there were more than 50 participants one day later. I've been a daily Wikipedia editor for more than 12 years, and I've never seen so much interest in a project or content added to Wikipedia about a specific topic in such a short period of time. WikiProject members worked expeditiously to build a framework and hang abarnstar, tagging related pages, assessing content, and startingtalk page discussions about the project's goals and scope. I'm thankful to the many editors who pitched in to get the project established, and I look forward to seeing how editors collaborate in this space as we move forward.
What are the short-term goals of the project?
No specific goals have been posted to the project page yet, but I'd like to think members share a collective desire to ensure Wikipedia has accurate and reliable information about the disease and pandemic. Disinformation and misinformation seem rampant these days, so we're working to give readers around the globe access to accurate, objective, and possibly even life-saving information. Unlike some WikiProjects which may take a more historical approach to documenting certain topics, WikiProject COVID-19 members have the ability to mitigate the disease's spreadin real time by arming communities with facts about outbreaks in their region as well as information about prevention, testing, vaccine research, societal impact, etc.Viewership ofWikiProject Medicine,WikiProject Viruses, andWikiProject COVID-19 in the month of March 2020
What are the long-term goals? English Wikipedia has many of 'lumpers' who think there are too many projects already. The project has also inspired the creation of two portals, which I imagine caused some raised eyebrows in this trend of portal deletionism. What will come of the WP after the current outbreak subsides?
After creating WikiProject COVID-19, a couple editors said I should have created a task force instead of a standalone WikiProject. I wasn't bothered. The number of 'thank you' notifications I received for creating the page vastly outweighed these critical comments. I knew the page I created was much needed, and I would be fine if editors decide to call the page by another name. I understand some editors think there are too many WikiProjects. No one's required to join WikiProject COVID-19, but the 100+ of us who have already joined invite you to help with our efforts, if you're interested. As for the project's future, I would be fine if editors decided to convert the WikiProject into a task force, or even put the project into retirement if the time comes. Given the level of interest and impact the pandemic has already had on a global scale, I have a feeling the WikiProject will be active for a long time.
Another criticism of the project is its narrow focus. It is focused on only onestrain of virus, and the disease it causes. EvenWikiProject AIDS is abouttwo species of virus. Is the scope of the project too small? What would an expanded scope look like? Why would including another virus strain in the same species,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus which causesSARS, not be wanted? or is it wanted?
Narrow focus? I disagree. The project may focus on a single virus and disease, but the pandemic has resulted in the creation of hundreds of Wikipedia articles documenting outbreaks in most countries and territories. There are pages covering the pandemic's impact onaviation,cinema,education,politics,religion,sports, andtelevision, not to mention others related to theresulting economic turmoil. Additionally, there are hundreds of templates, charts, and other graphics. Who knows how many thousands of images and other media will be uploaded at Wikimedia Commons by the time this pandemic subsides? There's alsoCOVID-19 WikiProject COVID-19 at Wikidata, and I wouldn't be surprised if similar spaces are created for other Wikimedia projects soon. Even if the focus is narrow, there's plenty of content for Wikimedians to improve and protect.
In your opinion, what should be the guidelines for creating a new project, as opposed to creating a task force or working under an existing WikiProject?
I don't feel strongly about new project creation guidelines, or the differences between WikiProjects and task forces. Project members should decide what structure works for them and call themselves whatever name they prefer. I understand project construction requires maintenance and can come at an administrative cost, but we should be careful about discouraging editors from proposing new projects.
Ideally, editors would only create a new WikiProject if at least a few others were committed to joining. I created WikiProject COVID-19 without conferring with others because I assumed the interest would be there. I encourage people to be bold and create project pages, but maybe ask a few other editors for feedback first. I'll let other editors worry about the guidelines.
What tools (templates, bots, etc.) are essential, or even just really helpful, for organizing and maintaining a successful project? What is something every WP should do, that maybe isn't doing now?
I don't have any sort of medical background, and I'm more interested in the pandemic's impact than details about the disease or virus. Most surprising to me has been the lack of preparedness for combating outbreaks by governments around the world, including here in the United States. I don't know how COVID-19's spread compares to other infectious diseases, but as I've watched the outbreak develop I've continually wondered why governments did not start preparing earlier. What was happening in China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea should have prompted action sooner.
What important things about2019–20 coronavirus pandemic do you think folks should know and maybe have missed in the deluge of information coming at people?
1. Know the most common symptoms: cough, fever, and difficulty breathing.
2. Learn what behavioral adjustments you should make to protect yourself and reduce transmission, and remember to wash your hands.
3. Get your information from reputable sources. I'd like to think Wikipedia editors are pretty good at this last bit of advice.
Hi, if you desrtub any articles OK to add them to this? I don't mind adding them from the African list if you don't want to list them twice. I was hoping to get that off to a good start once people have recovered from the contest.†Encyclopædius12:40, 6 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Opinion:Trusting Everybody to Work Together In an increasingly factious world, Wikipedia's approach to collaboration and trust-building point to a brighter future.
WikiProject Birds gained a new task force.A discussion determined that WikiProject Poultry might be more successful as a task force, with the move completed 15 April.
Round 2 of theWikiCup wrapped up this month. Several editors moved on to Round 3 by scoring points in biodiversity-related areas, includingSainsf,Casliber,Dunkleosteus77,CaptainEek,Guettarda, andEnwebb. Dunkleosteus77 finished at the top of the Tree of Life pack with 608 points, finishing 9th overall in the round.
After a relatively quiet February and March, with only 11 total articles nominated for GA and none for FAC, April brought a shower of nominations. In total, 5 articles were nominated for FAC, 1 for FLC, and 11 for GA.
Tree of Life's growing featured content
Inspired by aMarch 2020 post at WikiProject Medicine detailing the growth of Featured Articles over time, we decided to reproduce that table here, adding a second table showing the growth of Good Articles. Tree of Life articles are placed in the "Biology" category for FAs, which has seen a growth of 381% since 2008. Only two other subjects had a greater growth than Biology: Business, economics, and finance; and Warfare.
Percentage Growth in FA Categories, 2008–2019, Legend:Considerably above average,Above average,AverageBelow average,Considerably below average,Poor
Note A: Total is off by one; not worth looking for the error.
Note B Three food biographies moved[1] per discussion atWT:FAC
Note: The very odd dates used in earlier years result from pulling old data from thetalk page at WP:FAS.
Good Article Category as of
Feb 23, 2008
Sep 16, 2008
Sep 16, 2010
Dec 1, 2011
Jan 1, 2015
Jan 1, 2020
Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2011
Pct chg Feb 2008 to 2020
Agriculture, food and drink
27
34
37
55
113
226
104%
737%
Art and architecture
134
188
321
450
683
1022
236%
663%
Engineering and technology
256
396
882
1198
1828
2407
368%
840%
Geography and places
191
248
424
523
716
1052
174%
451%
History
261
312
651
825
1219
1894
216%
626%
Language and literature
173
215
377
462
686
982
167%
468%
Mathematics
19
22
27
30
36
67
58%
253%
Media and drama
403
658
1352
1300
3070
3961
223%
883%
Music
357
527
997
1437
2532
3892
303%
990%
Natural sciences
544
686
1275
1717
2404
3426
216%
530%
Philosophy and religion
134
174
244
294
365
557
119%
316%
Social sciences and society
468
549
790
998
1430
1854
113%
296%
Sports and recreation
384
546
1074
1402
2350
3802
265%
890%
Video games
168
220
373
443
684
1349
164%
703%
Warfare
155
241
989
1654
2544
3996
967%
2478%
Total
3674
5016
9813
12788
20660
30487
248%
730%
Organisms*
119
130
402
528
685
1017
344%
755%
*subset of natural sciences
Unsurprisingly, the number of GAs has increased more rapidly than the number of FAs. Organisms, which is a subcategory of Natural sciences, has seen a GA growth of 755% since 2008, besting the Natural sciences overall growth of 530%. While Warfare had far and away the most significant growth of GAs, it's a clear outlier relative to other categories.
... that although thealpine bartsia has a wide range in Europe and North America, it is known in the British Isles only from a few locations in northern England and the centralScottish Highlands? (19 April)
... that theorange-band surgeonfish(pictured) can change colour from dark to light almost instantaneously? (21 April)
If you think this page should not be deleted for this reason, you maycontest the nomination byvisiting the page and clicking the button labelled "Contest this speedy deletion". This will give you the opportunity to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. However, be aware that once a page is tagged for speedy deletion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag from the page yourself, but do not hesitate to add information in line withWikipedia's policies and guidelines.LizRead!Talk!14:38, 27 May 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This month saw two Tree of Life editorsgain the mop:CaptainEek (WikiProjects Birds and Plants) andCwmhiraeth (familiar name at DYK, WikiProjects Plants, Animals, and Insects)
The April – MayGAN backlog drive finished up, clearing the queue from nearly 700 outstanding nominations to about 350.
Interview with Jts1882
This month we're joined byJts1882, who is active in depicting evolutionary relationship of taxa viacladograms. Part of this includes responding tocladogram requests, where interested editors can have cladograms made without using the templates themselves.
How did you come to be interested in systematics? Are you interested in systematics broadly, or is there a particular group you're most fond of?
As long as I can remember I’ve been interested in nature, starting with the animals and plants in the garden, school grounds, and local wood, and then more general wildlife worldwide. An interest in how things are classified grew from this. I like things to be organised and understanding the relationships between things and systems (not just living things) is a big part of that. Biology was always my favourite subject in school and took up a disproportionate part of my time. My interest in systematics is broad as I’d like to comprehend the whole tree of life, but the cat family is my favourite group.
What's the background behind cladogram requests? I see that it isn't a very old part of the Tree of Life
Well I can’t take any credit for the cladogram requests page, although I help out there sometimes. It was created byIJReid and there are several people who have helped there more than me. I think the motivation is that creating cladograms requires a knowledge of the templates that is daunting for many editors. It was one way of helping people who want to focus on content creation.
My main contribution to the cladograms is converting the{{clade}} template to use a Lua module. The template code was extremely difficult to follow and had to be repetitive (I can only admire the efforts of those who got the thing to work in the first place). The conversion to Lua made it more efficient, allowed larger and deeper cladograms, plus facilitating the introduction of new features. The cladogram request page was recently the venue for discussion on making time calibrated cladograms, which is now possible, if not particularly user friendly.
What advice do you have for an editor who wants to learn how to make cladograms?
The same advice I would give to someone facing any computer problem, just try it out. Start by taking existing code for a cladogram and make changes yourself. The main advice would be to format it properly so indents match the brackets vertically. Of course, not everyone wants to learn and if someone prefers to focus on article content there is the cladogram request page.
Examples of cladograms Jts1882 has created, showing different proposed clades forNeoaves
Do you have any personal projects or goals you're working towards on Wikipedia?
As I said I like organisation and systems. So I find efforts like theautomated taxobox system and{{taxonbar}} appealing. I would like to see more reuse of the major phylogenetic trees on Wikipedia with more use of consensus trees on the higher taxa. Too often they get edited based on one recent report and/or without proper citation.Animals andbilateria are examples where this is a problem.
Towards this I have been working on a system of phylogeny templates that can be reused flexibly. The{{Clade transclude}} template allows selective transclusion, so the phylogenetic trees on one page can be reused with modifications, i.e. can be pruned and grafted, used with or without images, with or without collapsible elements, etc. I have an example for the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification (see{{Phylogeny/APG IV}}) and one for squamates that also includes collapsible elements (see{{Phylogeny/Squamata}}).
A second project is to have a modular reference system for taxonomic resources. I have made some progress along this lines with the{{BioRef}} template. This started off simply as a way of hardlinking toCatalog of Fishes pages and I’ve gradually expanded it to cover other groups (e..g.FishBase,AmphibiaWeb andAmphibian Species of the World,Reptile Database, the Mammalian Diversity Database). The modular nature is still rudimentary and needs a rewrite before it is ready for wider use.
What would surprise your fellow editors to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?
I don’t think there is anything particularly surprising or interesting about my life. I’ve had an academic career as a research scientist but I don't think anyone could guess the area from my Wikipedia edits. I prefer to work on areas where I am learning at the same time. This why I spend more time with neglected topics (e.g. mosses at the moment). I start reading and then find that I’m not getting the information I want.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
My interest in the classification of things goes beyond biology. I am fascinated by mediaeval attempts to classify knowledge, such asBacon in hisThe Advancement of Learning andDiderot andd’Alembert in theirEncyclopédie. They were trying to come up with a universal scheme of knowledge just as the printing press was allowing greater dissemination of knowledge.
With the internet we are seeing a new revolution in knowledge dissemination. Just look at how we could read research papers on the COVID virus within weeks of its discovery. With an open internet, everyone has access, not just those with the luxury of books at home or good libraries. Sites like theBiodiversity Heritage Library allow you to read old scientific works without having to visit dusty university library stack rooms, while the taxonomic and checklist databases provide instant information on millions of living species. In principle, the whole world can now find out about anything, even ifDouglas Adams warned we might be disinclined to do so.
This is why I like Wikipedia, with all its warts, it’s a means of organising the knowledge on the internet. In just two decades it’s become a first stop for knowledge and hopefully a gateway to more specialised sources. Perhaps developing this latter aspect, beyond providing good sources for what we say, is the next challenge for Wikipedia.
... thatTetraponera penzigi is one of several species of ant that protectwhistling thorn trees in East Africa from grazing giraffes and rhinoceroses? (3 May)
... that theVietnam mouse-deer, which had been feared to have gone extinct nearly 30 years ago, was sighted again in 2019? (4 May)
... that thenorthern plains gray langur monkey(example pictured) is killed in India for food and to prevent crop raiding, despite being considered sacred by Hindus? (12 May)
... that the leechLimnatis nilotica can affect humans and livestock, entering hosts through the mouth, nose, or other orifices? (12 May)
... that the treeBarteria fistulosa is associated withTetraponera aethiops, an aggressive species of ant that lives in its hollow branches and twigs? (15 May)
... thatMiller's langur, one of the rarest primates inBorneo, was feared to be extinct until a 2012 study rediscovered it in an area where it was previously unknown? (16 May)
... that most of the knownGigantopithecus fossils are of teeth because the other bones are likely to have been eaten byporcupines? (17 May)
... thatTetraponera tessmanni, a very aggressive ant, is able to establish dominance over the whole ofthe liana in which it lives, which may be 50 m (164 ft) long? (17 May)
... that besides eating ants and termites, thewaved woodpecker feeds on fruits, berries, and seeds? (24 May)
... that populations of theCanada lynx(pictured) undergo cyclic rises and falls in line with those of thesnowshoe hare? (25 May)
... that despite being known as the Mexican hydrangea,Clerodendrum bungei is neither from Mexico nor a species ofhydrangea? (25 May)
... thatmeerkats(examples pictured) usealarm calls that can identify the type of predator posing the risk, the level of danger, and the caller itself? (27 May)
... that the frogBoophis fayi can be identified by its unusual green-and-turquoise eyes? (30 May)
... that members of the fly familyApystomyiidae(example depicted) have been found in Late Jurassic sediments inKazakhstan? (30 May)
... that thesun bear(pictured) is the smallest of allbear species? (31 May)
Discussion report:Community reacts to WMF rebranding proposals Many Wikimedia community members are upset about the WMF's plan to rebrand. Plus, a discussion of Fox News's reliability.
SuperJew If the species is endemic to a country then that is easy, I choose that country. If it is found in more than one country them I may choose the country the type locality is located in, I also may select a country named in the text where the species may be commercially or culturally important. Alternatively, I may pick any country of occurrence, for example if a species distribution is given as the Red Sea then I may pick any of the countries with a Red Sea coastline to allocate the article to. This is the same way of allocating articles on natural history subjects I, and others, have used in previous destubbing challenges. I am supporting this destubbing challenge while updating fish articles and I am currently working through the Perciformes which will take me longer than this summer. Destubbing actually slows this down as I now expand the articles where I can rather than just updating to Speciesbox, citing the iucn template, adding synonyms, etc.. The last one article I destubbed wasEpinephelus latifasciatus, which occurs in the Persian Gulf, so I decided to allocate it to Iran. I could have allocated it to Japan where the type locality is, India, Sri Lanka, Australia or Taiwan which are all mentioned in the article or any countries with a coastline on the Red Sea, Gulf of Oman or Persian Gulf, but I chose Iran.Quetzal1964 (talk)07:35, 11 July 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This issue is a double issue, but the plan is to return to monthly henceforth.
Adiscussion atWikiProject Palaeontology about internal peer review processes led to the creation ofa peer review space. In contrast to the more formalPeer Review, PalaeoPR focuses on short "fact checks", emphasizing content over style. Reviews are meant to be low commitment, with "drive-by reviews" encouraged. Since its inception on 8 July, seven articles have been submitted to PalaeoPR.
After a highly competitive third round, two Tree of Life editors advanced to the fourth round of theWikiCup:Dunkleosteus77 andSainsf
AFebruary 2020 paper published in PLOS noted thatMammalian Species is one of the most over-cited journals on Wikipedia relative to how frequently it is cited in other academic works.
Categorizing life with DexDor
DexDor is a WikiGnome with a particular interest in article categorization, including how organisms are categorized.
How did you become interested in editing biodiversity topics on Wikipedia?
I'm a wikignome who tries to remove unnecessary complexity and confusion in Wikipedia. I specialise in categorization. I've worked on categorization of several topic areas (e.g. military equipment) - anywhere where I see things like category tags on articles that the category text doesn't support. Categorization of organisms is one area I'm currently looking at (my essay on this).
You seem to be particularly interested in geographic categorization of organisms. What are some issues in this area?
One issue is that there are several possible relationships between an organism and a region (i.e. what the "of" in a "Xs of Y" means) - the organism may be found throughout the region, somewhere in the region, only in the region (i.e. endemic to that region) - there are categories for each of these (and others) and some categories have been unclear about their exact meaning. Then there's introductions by man, locally extinct species, occasional visitors...
Another issue is that some editors have thought it's appropriate to create categories for very small areas ("Spiders of Vatican City" is only a slight exaggeration) and put a few articles in them, thus creating a category that is both massively incomplete and non-defining for the articles in it.
There have been several (now blocked) editors who have been disruptive in this area, but a confusing and sprawling categorization scheme is also partly due to editors from a particular background categorizing a particular article in a way that appears to make sense, but doesn't really make sense in the wider categorization scheme - for example, if an article mentions the countries at the extremes of an animal's distribution, the animal is categorized just for those countries.
What potential solutions do you see for categorizing organisms by geography? How can other editors help address this issue, or at least, not make it worse?
We should have some guidelines that tell editors how to categorize any article about an organism (including any geographical categorization). I've started drafting guidelines atUser:DexDor/BioCat. The guidelines are also a good way to ensure that the categorization of articles about organisms is aligned with categorization of other articles and may help us to identify where there are problems, inconsistencies etc in the categorization. I welcome suggestions for improvement of the guidelines (which should at some point be moved into WP:TOL).
Regarding geographical categorization of animals the main advice for editors would be to not create categories for any new areas and to only create a new category if you intend to populate it.
What have you learned from being a Wikipedia editor?
That lots of people (from varied backgrounds) each making (mostly) small improvements (like ants in an ants nest?) and only understanding some parts of Wikipedia can produce such a wonderful resource. But also, how that tends to result in ever-increasing complexity which negatively affects editors and readers.
Is there anything about your life outside Wikipedia that would surprise us?
... that despite being a member of thecat family, thejaguarundi has several features in common withmustelids such as otters and weasels? (2 June)
... that scientists were unsure whether theblue calamintha bee(pictured) still existed until it was observed again in March 2020? (2 June)
... that many of the animals regarded aspests have co-evolved with humans, adapting to the warm, sheltered conditions that a building provides? (3 June)
... that thebanteng is the secondendangered species to be successfullycloned, and the first clone to survive beyond infancy? (5 June)
... that cattle and deer sometimes stand under trees wheresouthern plains gray langurs are feeding in order to consume the edible pieces that the monkeys drop? (10 June)
... that when boiled in milk,black coral(example pictured) emits a faint scent ofmyrrh? (21 June)
... that one of the factors affecting the future of theHuanchaca mouse is the increased cultivation ofbiofuels? (22 June)
... that theStrawberries and Cream Tree(pictured) is noted for producing pink blossoms on one side of the tree and white on the other, when it blooms every spring? (23 June)
... that theChilean seaside cinclodes bobs its tail while it walks and flares its wings while it sings? (24 June)
... thatBoie's frog(pictured) and theBanhado frog both resemble dead leaves on the floor of the forest? (25 June)
... that the frogCorythomantis greeningi retreats into a hole, blocks the entrance with its spiny head, and injects venom into anything that tries to dislodge it? (18 July)
... that thereef box crab uses its powerful pincers to break open the shells of snails? (21 July)
... that the genusPterodactylus(species depicted), the scientific name for a pterodactyl, had been considered a "wastebasket taxon" as many species were assigned to it and later reassigned? (23 July)
... that the sea urchinAbatus cordatus broods its young for nine months in pockets on its upper surface? (24 July)
... thatHarold Clyde Bingham trailed a troop of gorillas for 100 hours in 1929? (25 July)
Science Direct is just a website, it contains all sorts of things. Asking whether it's reliable is like asking whether Google.com is a reliable source. "Science Direct Topics" is merely a collection of automatically generated snippets from random papers. Have you actually readwhat it is about and could you please tell me under which category ofWikipedia:Reliable sources do you think it would fall? Thanks,Nemo15:04, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Nemo bis Thank you I looked at it and it claims that it provides "credible, accurate and relevant content", it is a summary of papers. So, if you were to explain it to someone who was, as we say, hard of understanding, you would say that they should cite the papers referred to on the summary rather than the summary, is that correct?Quetzal1964 (talk)17:13, 26 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, definitely. Especially as those snippets may vary, so in a year or two the reader may not find at all what you were referring to. I found many such cases already...Nemo14:23, 28 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]
On August 7,WikiProject Palaeontology memberRextron discovered a suspicious taxon article,Mustelodon, which was created in November 2005. The article lacked references and the subsequent discussion onWikiProject Palaeontology found that the alleged type locality (where the fossil was first discovered) of Lago Nandarajo "near the northern border of Panama" was nonexistent. In fact, Panama does not even really have a northern border, as it is bounded along the north by the Caribbean Sea. No other publications or databases mentionedMustelodon, save a fleeting mention in a 2019 book that presumably followed Wikipedia,Felines of the World.
The article also appeared in four other languages, Catalan, Spanish, Dutch, and Serbian. In Serbian Wikipedia, a note at the bottom of the page warned: "It is important to note here that there is no data on this genus in the official scientific literature, and all attached data on the genusMustelodon on this page are taken from the English Wikipedia and are the only known data on this genus of mammals, so the validity of this genus is questionable."
Editors took action to alert our counterparts on other projects, and these versions were removed also. As the editor who reached out to Spanish and Catalan Wikipedia, it was somewhat challenging to navigate these mostly foreign languages (I have a limited grasp of Spanish). I doubted that the article had very many watchers, so I knew I had to find some WikiProjects where I could post a machine translation advising of the hoax, and asking that users follow local protocols to remove the article. I was surprised to find, however, that Catalan Wikipedia does not tag articles for WikiProjects on talk pages, meaning I had to fumble around to find what I needed (turns out that WikiProjects areViquiprojectes in Catalan!)Mustelodon remainson Wikidata, where its "instance of" property was swapped from "taxon" to "fictional taxon".
How did this article have such a long lifespan? Early intervention is critical for removing hoaxes. A 2016 report found that a hoax article that survives its first day has an 18% chance of lasting a year.[1] Additionally, hoax articles tend to have longer lifespans if they are in inconspicuous parts of Wikipedia, where they do not receive many views.Mustelodon was only viewed a couple times a day, on average.
Mustelodon survived a brush with death three years into its lifespan. The article was proposed for deletion in September 2008, with a deletion rationale of "No references given; cannot find any evidence in peer-reviewed journals that this alleged genus actually exists". Unfortunately, the proposed deletion was contested and the template removed, though the declining editor did not give a rationale. Upon its rediscovery in August 2020,Mustelodon was tagged for speedy deletion underCSD G3 as a "blatant hoax". This was challenged, and anArticles for Deletion discussion followed. On 12 August, the AfD was closed as a SNOW delete. WikiProject Palaeontology members ensured that any trace of it was scrubbed from legitimate articles. The fictional mammal was finally, truly extinct.
At the ripe old age of 14 years, 9 months, this is the longest-lived documented hoax on Wikipedia, topping the previous documented record of 14 years, 5 months, set byThe Gates of Saturn, a fictitious television show, which was incidentally also discovered in August 2020. How do we discover other hoax taxa? Could we use Wikidata to discover taxa are not linked to databases like ITIS, Fossilworks, and others?
Apororhynchus hemignathi, a spiny-headed worm with the distinction of being one of the first named animal taxa when organized alphabetically
This month's spotlight is withMattximus, author of two Featured Articles and 29 Featured Lists at current count.
How did you become involved with editing biodiversity articles?
I think I have a compulsion to make lists, it doesn't show up in my real life, but online I secretly get a lot of satisfaction making orderly lists and tables. It's a bit of a secret of mine, because it doesn't manifest in any other part of my life. My background is in biology, so this was a natural (haha) fit.
You have an impressive number of FAs under your belt. Two of your more recent ones,Apororhynchus andGigantorhynchus, are part of what you referred to as an "experiment". How did you choose these articles, and what's next for you in this experiment?
This experiment was just to see if I could get any random article to FA status, so I picked the very first alphabetical animal species according to the taxonomy and made that attempt. Technically, there isn't enough information for a species page so I just merged the species into a genus and went from there. It was a fun exercise, but doing it alone is not the most fun so it's probably on pause for the foreseeable future.
Note:Aporhynchus is the first alphabetical taxon as follows: Animalia, Acanthocephala, Archiacanthocephala, Apororhynchida, Apororhynchidae, Apororhynchus
What advice would you give to someone who wants to nominate their first FAC?
I would recommend getting a good article nominated, then a featured list up before tackling the FA. Lists are a bit more forgiving but give you a taste of what standards to expect from FA. The most time consuming thing is proper citations so make sure that is in order before starting either.
Is there anything that would surprise us to learn about your life off-Wikipedia?
My personality in real life does not match my wikipedia persona. I'm not a very organized, or orderly in real life, but the wikipedia pages I brought to FL or FA are all very organized. Maybe it's my outlet for a more free-flowing life as a scientist/teacher.
Anything else you'd like us to know?
The fact that wikipedia exists free of profit motive and free for everyone really is something special and I encourage everyone to donate a few dollars to the cause.
... that the flower buds of thewoolly thistle(pictured) can be eaten in a similar way toartichokes? (8 August)
... that theFrench peanut is native to Brazil? (10 August)
... that the 800-year-oldMinchenden Oak is one of the oldest trees in London? (14 August)
... that the forward-facingincisors of the extinct dolphinAnkylorhiza(restoration pictured) may have been used for ramming their prey, similar to a hunting method used by modernorcas? (16 August)
... that scientists accidentally created ahybrid of two endangered fish species, called thesturddlefish? (17 August)
... that despite having the widest distribution in the United States, thearid-land subterranean termite causes less structural damage than other members of its genus? (19 August)
... that in 2021, thedwarf periodical cicada(pictured) is due to emerge in parts of eastern North America, not having been seen for 17 years? (24 August)
Join us in this exciting venture, by helping to create or expand contents in Wikimedia projects which are connected to this scope. Kindlylist your username under the participants section to indicate your interest in participating in this contest.
We would be awarding prizes to different categories of winners:
Overall winner
1st - $500
2nd - $200
3rd - $100
Diversity winner - $100
Gender-gap fillers - $100
Language Winners - up to $100*
We would be adding additional categories as the contest progresses, along with local prizes from affiliates in your countries. For further information about the contest, the prizes and how to participate, please visit the contest pagehere. For further inquiries, please leave comments on the contest talkpage or on the main project talkpage. Looking forward to your participation.--Jamie Tubers (talk) 19:22, 22nd September 2020 (UTC)
Ýou can opt-out of this annual reminder from The Afrocine Project by removing your username fromthis list
Shirt58 Thank you for you comment. For articles on fishes, Wikipedia follows the taxonomy ofFishbase and this puts this species inNothonotus soE. starnesi is asynonymous binomial. There is some variation among the relevant authorities as to whetherNothonotus is asubgenus ofEtheostoma or a valid genus and what species are included.Quetzal1964 (talk)14:40, 28 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the your reply! The specific epithet - unlike more generic epithets like "elegans" and so on - "starnesi" would appear to indicate that the species in question was named in honour of a notable ichthyologist. I'll have a little look around and see what I can find. Pete "not an ichthyologist but definitely aqueer fish" AU aka --Shirt58 (talk)10:35, 29 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Quetzal1964,I like your Augusta Foote Arnold site because I like natural history, just as you do, especially birds, but also the history of natural history via biographies. I have been researching her life and times, as a way to know more deeply the origins of marine biology in the United States.
I am from California, Los Angeles, southern half of the state. Her book discusses California many times, but not as much as the Atlantic coast, as she was from there, so I wish there was more discussion by her about California. Nonetheless, there is a lot, if I also include the marine algae (seaweeds) and I would like to compile and scribe her California writings, so that California naturalists and marine biologists would be more aware of her early work.
Fully 23 years would elapse, nearly 25, until about 1927, when the next book on marine life of the seashore would be written again, by another woman, Myrtle Johnson, a university professor at San Diego State College.
And then, another 10 years before Between Pacific Tides, by Ed Ricketts, who Steinbeck praises and elevates, and I know that book biography of Ed Ricketts.
Both Ed and Myrtle barely mention Augusta Foote Arnold and her book. One feels that you can talk too highly of earlier books for fear that the new book will not be read, and so some ego is involved. Ed is not positive about the book by Johnson as well.
Wondering if you might do a wikipedia site about Blanche Trask?
Thank you for doing the wikipedia site about Augusta Foote Arnold.
Hello Quetzal1964,Fascinating/nice to discover that you are working on an article on the Extinct Birds of Britain.I will be interested to know these bird, even if sad to learn about the birds that have gone extinct.Will you be discussing those that disappeared in different geologic time periods with fossils? Will compare the the difference of extirpated versus extinct species?Will you discuss that some of the birds are extant in Europe and can be recovered to Britain?Peace, 'Roy'Robert Jan van de Hoek (talk)21:01, 1 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The Months of African Cinema Contest Continues in November!
Thank you very much for participating in theMonths of African Cinema global contest/edit-a-thon, and thank you for your contributions so far.
It is already the middle of the contest and a lot have been achieved already! We have been able to get over 1,500 articles created in over fifteen (15) languages! This would not have been possible without your support and we want to thank you. If you have not yet listed your name as a participant in the contest page pleasedo so.
Please make sure to list the articles you have created or improved in thearticle achievements' section of the contest page, so that they can be easily tracked. To be able to claim prizes, please also ensure to list your articles on theusers by articles page. We would be awarding prizes to different categories of winners:
Overall winner
1st - $500
2nd - $200
3rd - $100
Diversity winner - $100
Gender-gap filler - $100
Language Winners - up to $100*
We are very excited about what has been achieved so far, but your contributions are still needed to further exceed all expectations! Let’s create more articles before the end of this contest, which is this November!!!
I did a little research and found a goo biographical article on Anthony Curtiss.Given there is a red link for Anthony Curtiss on the Augusta Foote Arnold biography article, I was wondering if the time is good for a new wikipedia article on Anthony Curtiss, which would allow linking the the two biographies togehter, not unlike was done for Richard Knapp Allen.
I noticed that the blenny mentioned in the Augusta Foote Arnold in the Eponym section, also has an interesting article on the blenny, and there is a red link there about Anthony Curtiss, so a new article would be helpful there. I suspect there may be additional articles where Arnold Curtiss has red links, including articles on birds, butterflies and dragonflies, but I am not absolutely certain.
Here is some bio info on Anthony Curtiss that I found in an article about him.His birth name is Roy Abijah Curtiss, Jr.Birth: May 9, 1910 in New York.Death: July 12, 1981 in Pakistan.
There is a photo of Roy "Anthony" Curtiss as a young man.
I have found verification that Anthony Curtiss did name another species, not a fish, definitely for Augusta Foote Arnold whichis is "sand bug" now more commonly known as "sand crab" in the Hippa Family.
The short bio about Roy "Anthony" Curtiss is by Neal L. Everhuis.He is zoologist at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii.Article Title: Anthony Curtiss (1910-1981): a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.Journal Name: Fly Times, Issue 44, April, 2010.Pages 13-16, photo on page 13. Article is onlin pdf at:http://www.nadsdiptera.org/News/FlyTimes/issue44.pdf
I believe we can list the expertise of Anthony Curtiss, not only as a zoologist but also due to his use of native Tahitian peoples names for Tahitian animals, which he learned from interviewing native Tahitian Polynesians, he is also an ethnographer (anthropologist) and an ethnobiologist (ethnozoologist).
Anthony Curtiss married a young Tahitian woman, and she had 7 children with Anthony, whom appear to all have moved back to USA with him, and later to Haiti, and back to the USA.
I hope you agree that there is enough information to begin a wikipedia article about Anthony Curtiss?
I plan to write to Neal Everhuis to see if I can find more information about Anthony Curtiss. And I already wrote to Chris, who is an ichthyologist that was cited in the Augusta Foote Arnold article as a citation/reference for his list of fish with Arnold in Latin in the species epithet, as "arnorldorum" and this is the same species epithet used for the "sand bug" that I listed above, on page 167 of the zoological article by Anthony Curtiss of circa 1938.
Interestingly, Chris wrote back to me, including two pdfs of articles by Arnold Curtiss on Tahiti Zoology. I would like to forward his email and two pdf to you if you are interested, but I would need your email address.
I hope you are well, and enjoying your new puppy. Be safe in these pandemic days.
Hi Quetzal1964. I looked at your Sandbox, much thanks to to you for sharing the link as I am not familiar with Sandbox, but have heard of it, and may have tried to use it for an article 6 months ago, but failed. You are introducing me to more new editing understanding with the Sandbox.
Is the reference citation #3 not used in the right place with respect to geography, Tahiti versus New England?
I am so happy to see the Roy Curtiss bash (have I used the Scots term appropiately?).
I had missed the importance of his grandmother and roots to Islam and Pakistan, which is fascinating.
Lots of good discovery, such as cemetery grave having date of birth different then Fly Times article, albeit only 9 days difference. Use of Latin 'nom plume' is great and new to me, just barely awared of use of this term.
Is there a reason for stopping at Early Years?Possibly still a draft with more to do?Possibly asking me to add some info?
What about the photo?
May I refer to what you have done so far, overall as a bash as well, in Scots language?
With your interest in birds, nice to see that Anthony Curtiss studies birds, and I learned that he may have been the last person to see Tahiti Rail, now extinct. And he learned the Tahitian words for birds. I was saddened to learn that his library and papers were lost in a fire, hopefullly not linked to people of Massachusetts not liking him for his marriage and their children of mixed Tahitian ethnicity. Just sayin, perhaps totally unrelated, given also that Massachusetts is very liberal, not biased so much as other parts of the US.
By the way, I have been reading about fish and crabs at this time, to be more understanding of Anthony Curtiss and his natural history interests
I am very interested in links to Augusta Foote Arnold with regard to invertebrates, including his collecting and finding "sand bugs" which later evoled into being known as "mole crab" or "sand crab" and I have started contacting some crab biologists via email.
What can I do to help you with completing the article for submission?
Robert Jan van de Hoek (talk·contribs) The article is a work in progress. The citation 3 is there because they mention this publication too. I will finish the drafting over the next few days. However, if you can add anything that you can find and reference then you should do so. If you have a reference for him potentially being the last person to see Tahiti Rail that would be a valuable and interesting addition. Potentially something we could put forward as aDid you know once the article is finished. There is a noted scientist calledRoy Curtiss who I think is his son, if you could find something about this that would be helpful too.Quetzal1964 (talk)13:19, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Quetzal1964, Ok, I see, and article is looking good. Looking forward to the finish.
I think you are saying that doing editing of what you have written is good for me to do? I would like to help. I noticed that there is redlink in your sandbox, so you do not use that, as it is not created. Just asking. I am not familiar nor keen to add edits there, as writing here works, and I can make edits directly to the draft article in the sandbox.
Sounds very cool to do aDid you know after article was finished on Tahiti Rail.
The son of Anthony Curtiss, named Roy Curtiss III, which I agree may be his son, so someone who I would like to write to here in the USA, to inquire about their relationship, and who would have been born in Tahiti, would be interesting as well. As you show, there is a blue link to this Roy Curtiss III?
In the References/cited section, I could only read the first page of the Zootaxa article link as one of the references by Evehnuis, Ng, and Eldridge in 2011. I would like to read the whole article. I hope and plan to write to all three of them, as their email addresses are provided.
I do not submit articles for review as I am, I think, an experienced editor, I did once but was told that my articles were of a standard which did not require review. I am using my sandbox because I did not expect to complete the article in one go.
If the photograph has no copyright issues then we can use it but I try to make sure that images are usable within Wikipedia’s policies before using them.
If Roy Curtiss III is Anthony Curtiss’s son then he probably remained in the US when his father went to Morocco as he graduated BSc from Cornell University in 1956. However, he was born in 1934 in New York, so there is some doubt around AC being his father. As I understand it, in America, if you are called Joe Bloggs and you name your son after yourself he is called Joe Bloggs Junior and if he does the same then your grandson is called Joe Bloggs III. Not something we do over here, numerals after names being restricted to monarchs.Quetzal1964 (talk)17:03, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Quetzal1964,Congrats finishing the article. I will look at after finishing this reply to you.You are an experienced editor, and I am still junior editor, who has learned from you, thanks.Thanks also, for explaining further about the Sandbox. I agree with you about the photo. I will look into the status of photo rights, when I write to Neal Everhuis, the biologist at Hawaii, who wrote a biography about him that included the photo.
Agreement about Roy Curtiss III. I have seen a photo of him at retirement from University in Arizona. I see a full beard, certainly caucasion/white with no hint to me of mixed heritage with a Tahitian Polynesian mother. Perhaps, his mother was herself mixed with French heritage mixed. I have yet to write to Roy Curtiss III, who if arithmetic of Cornell graduation in 1950s, and photo, would indicate that he is in his 80s, so as a senior, he may not be able to communicate, or not wishing to speak of his family history. I will try later today hopefully to write that email to him.
Robert Jan van de Hoek (talk·contribs) I have found that his brothersThomas Quinn Curtiss andSidney Quinn Curtiss were notable and thatAugustus John painted a portrait of his mother. According to newspapers at the time, his mother divorced his father for adultery with his secretary, he died in her home following the divorce. As part of the settlement his mother had a permanent apartment at a fixed rent at the Waldorf Astoria from 1921 to her death in 1974. I also found an obituary for another brother, Franklin, who was a selectman for 10 years and a Republican candidate for state representative in the 4th Berkshire District of Massachusetts in 1992 and who died in 2002.http://www.iberkshires.com/community/printerFriendly.php?ob_id=2374
Greetings Quetzal1964,Fascinating to learn more about the brothers of Anthony Curtiss. Is Augustus John also a brother, as reading the blue link biography as an artist, I did not see any mention of being with Curtiss family, and the surname "John" is not Curtiss. Could he have changed his name as being an artist, and perhaps not liking his father, and is this a reason that Anthony made this given name for himself, to distance from his father. Interesting that there may be a painting portrait by Augustus of his mother, which indicates caring about his mother. Curious to consider if Augustus was a name that links to Augusta Foote Arnold, with possibly their mother liking the seashore and shell collecting and a link to the coast near Massachusetts east coast? Pure speculation and myth and storytelling on my part?
I am interested, by the way, in Berkshire County of western Massachusetts, and visited there one time about 10 years ago, and I have researched biography of Ralph Hoffmann, of a german immigrant family that wrote a Flora of Berkshire County, and wrote many articles on birds of Berkshire County, and wrote a very important birdwatching field guide for northeast England, and became a teacher. I just did this sidebar but not related to the subject at hand of the Curtiss family.
The nice arrangement for their mother to live for a long time at the Waldorf Astoria in New York is fascinating, showing a strong link to her side of the family having been associated with New York. And I recall that the childhood of Anthony Curtiss was in part in New York, and that young Anthonly, perhaps with his mother alongside, visited and explored the American Museum of Natural History?
On and on. I had no idea when I first checked with you about Augusta Foote Arnold that we would go down a path about Anthony Curtiss. Would be nice to learn if the Curtiss family has any traveling that went to California at some point? And did the Curtiss family ever go to England or Scotland or Nederland, possibly Holland at Amsterdam, since they did go to nearby France.
Well, yet again, I have written a long message, and apologize if I am writing too much.
The biographical article in Fly Times, if I am not mistaken, hints that Anthony was close to his mother, and she imparted into him about liking nature.
Robert Jan van de Hoek (talk·contribs) Augustus John was a Welsh artist, no relation to the Curtiss family. The mother spent a lot of time as a girl in France and Germany and was fluent in both French and German. She traveled to Europe most of her life. Quinn is an Irish name so I guess she had Irish ancestry. At least two of Anthony’s brothers served in the US Military in World War II. I will post the article now.Quetzal1964 (talk)20:01, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Great news, Quetzal1964. Thanks. I made few minor edits that are more like proofreading. I like the article very much. Well done, with abundent compliments. I will be able make some blue links to this article from other artices as I review further. And similarly, I can blue link this article to other articles. I hope to get permission for that photo of him to be used.
Phil Fish (talk·contribs) Thank you for getting in touch. SeeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking Countries and other large, well known geographic entities, like Oceans or Continents, are usually not linked because the assumption is that the reader knows what these are. Overlinking is not a serious faux pas but new editors, including myself, often do it. I saw my Resplendant Quetzals in Costa Rica.Quetzal1964 (talk)08:09, 13 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks Quetzal,
Thanks for the explanation.
I completely see the point of well known geographic entities. But I am guessing if you asked ten people at random, the minority would know where or what Madagascar is. The majority? Maybe they would know it from the Cartoon movies Madagascar.
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WINNER of theThe Great Britain and Ireland Destubathon with all 137 counties covered. Incredible achievement, you've been amazing!! ♦Dr. Blofeld14:32, 30 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]
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