Wikipedia:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Main project pageTalkParticipantsReferences and templatesTree of Life Newsletter


WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles is a WikiProject that aims to expand and organise Wikipedia's collection of entries about amphibians and reptiles, both living and extinct.

Related WikiProjects[edit]

This WikiProject is an offshoot of WikiProject Tree of Life

WikiProject Science
WikiProject Biology
WikiProject Tree of Life
WikiProject Animals
WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles
WikiProject Dinosaurs
Pterosaurs task force
WikiProject Turtles

It is worth keeping an eye on several Wikiprojects that overlap with this one or that have made significant progress towards completion, including WikiProject Birds, WikiProject Ecoregions, WikiProject Conservation worldwide and WikiProject Marine life.

Writing an article[edit]

At what level is it worth having a separate Wikipedia article for a particular amphibian or reptile? Any level you like! If we write individual articles for all the species, we will be at it for a long time! The simplest (and probably best) rule is to have no rule: if you have the time and energy to write up some particularly obscure subspecies that most people have never even heard of, go for it!

As a general guideline though, combine several species or subspecies into a single article when there isn't enough text to make more than short, unsatisfying stubs otherwise. If the article grows large enough to deserve splitting, that can always be done later.

Structure[edit]

This project follows guidelines discussed at WikiProject Tree of Life/article titles and Naming conventions (fauna).

Amphibian and reptile articles can be on any level that makes sense in context. Most will be about particular taxa. For example:

In many cases, it makes sense to combine several taxonomic levels in a single article. For example, the subfamily Rheobatrachinae contains only one genus, Rheobatrachus. All rheobatrachids are gastric-brooding frogs, so the one article covers both subfamily and genus levels.

Conversely, sometimes it is better to cover only a part of a taxon: Corroboree frog deals with two different (but related) species and ignores the other species in the genus Pseudophryne.

Some of the larger taxons, such as frogs, must be broken down into smaller articles to reduce article size. For example, with frog, the biology related sections remain in the article, and the popular culture section and list of families within that order are split into the Frogs in popular culture and List of Anuran families articles. A paragraph with a link to the separate article should be left within the main article (e.g. Frog#Taxonomy).

It may be useful to start with a high-level article, such as a family article, and then split off genus and/or species articles as the material builds.

Create links to articles on the levels immediately higher and lower. An article on a family such as true toads should link back to frogs, and down to the genus articles.

Article contents[edit]

The following items are desirable for articles of all levels, although the detail will vary depending on several factors. These items do not need to be separated into distinct sections; text should flow in continuous prose so far as possible. The order this information is included is also relatively unimportant, although the order listed is generally preferred.

  • Taxonomy (classification) - who discovered it? what's it related to? how does it fit into the tree of life? how many subspecies are there?
  • Description (physical, behavioral characteristics) - what makes this (group of) critter(s) different from its close relatives?
  • Distribution and habitat - where does it live? How broadly does it roam? Map images help.
  • Cultural, religious, economic, etc. importance - what impact has it had on humans? Include use for experimental purposes that do not relate to other headings.

Taxonomy[edit]

Crested gecko
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Family: Diplodactylidae
Genus: Correlophus
Species:
C. ciliatus
Binomial name
Correlophus ciliatus
Guichenot, 1866
Approximate distribution of the crested gecko
Synonyms

Rhacodactylus ciliatus (Guichenot, 1866)

Certain choices have been made to follow specific taxonomies for the different groups of articles that fall under this WikiProject. Excluding our three descendant WikiProjects, the following sources are used as our primary taxonomic references:

Taxonomy in Wikipedia is in many places out of sync with the ASW one. List showing discrepancies is available here: Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles/Amphibian taxonomy (lasted updated 31 March 2014).

In cases where a taxonomy has been selected, articles for newly described taxa that are not (yet) included in these taxonomies may still be added, but those articles describing the parent taxon should not be changed to suggest their inclusion. This rule does not apply if no taxonomy has been selected.

Cladograms can be requested for creation here: Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Cladogram requests.

In general, amphibian and reptile entries should have a taxobox, a feature we inherited from the Tree of Life WikiProject. See Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/taxobox usage for guidelines on how to use a taxobox. Using an automatic taxobox/speciesbox simplifies future maintenance as a taxon will automatically inherit its parent taxon's parents — see Template:Automatic taxobox/doc and Template:Speciesbox.

Assessment[edit]


Task list and progress[edit]

As organized by WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles, the current tasks are:

  1. Create article for each Order and Family
  2. Ensure all Family articles are taxonomically consistent
    1. Ensure all articles between Order and Family rank are taxonomically consistent
  3. Create article for each Genus
    1. Ensure all articles between Family and Genus rank are taxonomically consistent
  4. Create articles for all Species
    1. Create links for all species articles on appropriate articles
    2. Create lists of uncreated articles to add to category pages:
      1. List of amphibians
      2. List of reptiles
      3. Prehistoric amphibian
  5. Create articles for aspects of amphibian and reptile biology, such as snake scales and vocal sac.
  6. Copyedit current article text to coincide with Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna) (e.g., convert "Coral Snake" to "coral snake").
  7. For articles with {{AARTalk}} templates, rank and assess articles that have not been given a rating or an importance rating (see Category:Unassessed_amphibian_and_reptile_articles).
  8. Find images for Category:Amphibian and reptile articles needing photos
view edit discusshistorywatch

Photographs[edit]

Please help find images for Category:Amphibian and reptile articles needing images and also remove those from list that now have a picture.

Please use and help maintain collections of photographs and other images such as:

Note that Wikimedia Commons is the recommended repository for uploading images: ( Media related to Crocodilia at Wikimedia Commons)

Sample articles/lists[edit]

Some article under this WikiProject have been recognised for their excellence by the Wikipedia community as featured articles, and may serve as good models.

Recognized content[edit]

See full list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles/Recognized content

Featured articles[edit]

Featured lists[edit]

Former featured lists[edit]

Good articles[edit]

The following are classified as good articles and may need some more work to reach featured status:

Some articles specially created under auspices of the WikiProject are:

Hot articles[edit]

20 edits 2024 in archosaur paleontology
15 edits Purussaurus
14 edits Largest prehistoric animals
14 edits Polysphenodon
12 edits Axolotl
12 edits Raorchestes johnceei
11 edits Dicrodon holmbergi
10 edits Kermitops
10 edits Raorchestes jayarami
9 edits Yanomamia hoogmoedi

These are the articles that have been edited the most within the last seven days. Last updated 28 March 2024 by HotArticlesBot.

Popular pages[edit]

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles/Popular pages

Article alerts[edit]

Articles for deletion

Redirects for discussion

Requested moves

Articles to be merged

Articles to be split

Articles for creation

New articles[edit]

This list was generated from these rules. Questions and feedback are always welcome! The search is being run daily with the most recent ~14 days of results. Note: Some articles may not be relevant to this project.

Rules | Match log | Results page (for watching) | Last updated: 2024-03-28 21:30 (UTC)

Note: The list display can now be customized by each user. See List display personalization for details.















Cleanup listing[edit]

WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles barnstar[edit]

{{WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles barnstar}} is awarded to recognize great devotion in the creation and maintenance of high quality articles related to amphibians and/or reptiles. Use {{subst:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles barnstar|message --~~~~}} to award this barnstar with the frog/amphibian image.

WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles barnstar
Awarded to recognize great devotion in the creation and maintenance of high quality articles related to amphibians. Thank you!

Use {{subst:WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles barnstar|message --~~~~|alt}} to award this barnstar with the snake/reptile image.

WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles barnstar
Awarded to recognize great devotion in the creation and maintenance of high quality articles related to reptiles. Thank you!

Associated portals[edit]

Associated portals include: