[Cz-biology] Species names

[John R Moffett]

Hello Biologists,

I think we are making too large an issue of this. Of course there are
multiple common names, and I see no reason why we can't employ one of the
most often used as the main title (Giant Panda, Fruit Fly, Tomato plant)
followed by the scientific name, with a list of other common names from
around the world. All terms would link to the same page. If closely related
subspecies exist, we have them listed as well.

1. Primary common name
	a. scientific name
		b. other common names (and countries of usage)
			c. subspecies 
				d. location in phylogenetic tree


I just don't see that a large number of articles are going to be written any
time soon which cover species without common names in detail. And of course,
if someone were to write an article on Escherichia coli, the article will
need to have that title (with E. coli as a common abbreviation). No problems
there. See here: http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/E._coli 

I think that the major consensus here is that we should strive to use the
most often used common name, if one is available, followed immediately by
the scientific name in parentheses, followed by a list of alternate common
names. This would be totally non-ambiguous, and would give lots of detail in
providing alternate common names. Often, people don't know that there are
multiple common names, so providing them would be useful to many readers.

Best,

John M.
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
Bethesda Maryland


 

-----Original Message-----
From: cz-biology-bounces at voltaire.citizendium.org
[mailto:cz-biology-bounces at voltaire.citizendium.org] On Behalf Of Kim van
der Linde
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 3:55 AM
To: Biology Workgroup List
Subject: Re: [Cz-biology] Species names

David,

Look at for example the site of Tree-of-Life: http://www.tolweb.org/ all
name there a re on the scientific name only, for example
http://www.tolweb.org/Barnardius_zonarius/91491 and there are various other
websites doing the same.

The scholarly consensus various per species, the fluffier the more the
common name is used, but many many science articles use 'Drosophila' 
(strictly speaking a genus name) synonymous for 'Drosophila melanogaster',
but none in their right mind would suggest to do that for a encyclopaedia
article.

If it is all a popularity contest, that is fine, but I hope to avoid that.

Kim

David Goodman wrote:
> It's consistent all right, but  I thought we were to represent the 
> scholarly consensus. The scholarly consensus of journal editors is to 
> do nothing of the sort., as i showed for the panda. I was unable to 
> find one single article in one single journal in all of Biological 
> Abstracts where the title was the way we proposed it. The usages was 
> about evenly split in article titles between Common name (scientific
> name) and Common name only.
> 
> Conceivably this is an exception. I'll try some other examples.
> 
> David Goodman
> 
> On 10/25/07, Kim van der Linde <kim at kimvdlinde.com> wrote:
>> For those who just through this medium jump in to the very specific 
>> case (Giant Panda), please see the discussion of this at 
>> http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ_Talk:Biology_Workgroup at the 
>> various entries. Before people based on the Giant Panda make 
>> decisions for many species, please consider the following:
>>
>> 1. We have (multiple) common names for the fluffy and the furry and 
>> the beautiful stuff, but there are many many without a common name:
>> 1a. What about those without a common name?
>> 1b. What about those with a very uncommon used common name?
>> 1c. What if one species has two or more common names (for example: 
>> Monk parrot (British) versus Quacker Parrot (parts of the US); Cougar 
>> or Mountain Lion or Puma) 1d. What about common names used for 
>> multiple groups (for example: are the Drosophilidae or the 
>> Tethritidae the fruitflies)?
>>
>> 2. Each and every name can be created as a redirect to the specific 
>> page, as such, Giant Panda 
>> (http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Giant_Panda)
>> redirects to
>> http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Ailuropoda_melanoleuca_(Giant_Panda) 
>> just as http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Ailuropoda_melanoleuca should 
>> point to
>> http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Ailuropoda_melanoleuca_(Giant_Panda) 
>> just as Bai Xiong, Bamboo Bear, Da Xiong Mao, Hua Xiong, Mo, Pi xiu, 
>> Panda and Panda Bear. As such, searching is not an issue at all, and 
>> both the title as well as the first sentence makes immediately clear 
>> what is going on.
>>
>> Base on al this, it was proposed on the Biology workgroup talkpage to 
>> use the following solution:
>> ----------------
>> # Each species or higher taxon, except exceptions below, are to be 
>> written under their official scientific name. If there is a single 
>> established common name, that name is included in the title between 
>> parenthesis. (e.g. "''Barnardius zonarius'' (Australian Ringneck)").
>> # Groups that are included in the "''Latin name'' (Common name)" system
are:
>> #* Birds ([http://www.worldbirdnames.org/names.html offcial names]).
>> #* Mammals ([http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/ the single authoritative 
>> source for mammal names]).
>> #* Other groups to be added if a single authoritative source has been 
>> established.
>> # If a single authoritative common name is available for a species 
>> (see point above), that name is to be used in the article and 
>> overrules English dialect varieties.
>> # Subspecies and specific populations are included in the article of 
>> the species, unless they warrant a full article by themselves due to 
>> the amount of subspecies specific information.
>> # All common names are created as redirects to the main article. All 
>> scientific synonyms are created as redirects to the main article. In 
>> case of the "''Latin name'' (Common name)" scheme, the the main 
>> scientific name is also created as a redirect.
>> # Exceptions. The following domesticated species are created under 
>> their common name, most of the time using "Domesticated " as a prefix:
>> #* [[Human]] (''Homo sapiens sapiens'')
>> #* [[Domesticated horse]] (''Equus ferus caballus'')
>> #* [[Domesticated cat]] (''Felis silvestris catus'')
>> #* [[Domesticated dog]] (''Canis lupus familiaris'')
>> #* [[Donkey]] (''Equus asinus asinus'') or (''Equus africanus 
>> assinus'')
>> #* To be completed. (''Camelus ferus''; ''Lama guanicoe''; ''Vicugna 
>> vicugna''; ''Bos primigenius''; ''Bos gaurus''; ''Bubalus arnee''; 
>> ''Bos mutus''; ''Capra aegagrus''; ''Ovis orientalis''; ''Cavia 
>> aperea''; ''Mustela putorius''; ''Carassius gibelio''; ''Bombyx 
>> mandarina'', etc.)
>> ----------------------
>> Kim
>> --
>> http://www.kimvdlinde.com
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Cz-biology mailing list
>> Cz-biology at mail.citizendium.org
>> http://mail.citizendium.org/mailman/listinfo/cz-biology
>>
> 
> 

--
http://www.kimvdlinde.com
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