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Paleontology portal Shortcuts: WP:PAL WP:PALEO WP:PALAEO

WikiProject Palaeontology
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General information Main page Participants Popular pages Portal Project category
Departments Assessment Peer reviews Paleoart review
Taskforces Cambrian explosion taskforce Geological periods taskforce Lobe-Fins taskforce Paleontologists taskforce
Resources Categories Geological history of Earth GeoWhen Database Referencing tools Templates
Related WikiProjects WikiProject Dinosaurs WikiProject Pterosaurs WikiProject Sea Monsters
Useful templates {{WikiProject Palaeontology}} - Add to article, image, category or template talk pages that are paleontology orientated. {{User WPPa}} - Add to your user or user talk pages to show that you're a member of WikiProject Palaeontology. {{Paleo-stub}} - Notice placed on a paleontology related stub. {{Paleo-arthropod-stub}} - Notice placed on a prehistoric arthropod stub. {{Paleontologist-stub}} - Notice placed on a paleontologist's stub. {{Ammonite-stub}} {{Archosaur-stub}} {{Dinosaur-stub}} {{Evolution-stub}} {{Paleo-amphibian-stub}} {{Paleo-bird-stub}} {{Paleo-cephalopod-stub}} {{Paleo-fish-stub}} {{Paleo-mammal-stub}} {{Paleo-mollusc-stub}} {{Paleo-reptile-stub}} {{Sauropodomorph-stub}} {{Synapsid-stub}} {{Theropod-stub}} {{Trace-fossil-stub}} {{Trilobite-stub}}
Task list Ongoing tasks Taxonomic lists Portal:Paleontology
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This WikiProject, WikiProject Palaeontology, aims to organise an effort to expand and improve Wikipedia's coverage of paleontology-related articles.

These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles.

We aim to improve articles about palaeontologists and their work, extinct species, and areas that overlap with geology, life science, botany etc. There are also more specific projects on dinosaurs, pterosaurs, sea monsters, mammals and extinction - WikiProject Palaeontology provides a central portal for co-ordinated work across these areas, and smaller topics not lucky enough to have a dedicated WikiProject.

[edit] Participating

If you wish to participate in this project, please list your name to Participants. Feel free to include your area and degree of expertise, and what you feel you may bring to this project.

You are also welcome to help out with any of the tasks listed below that take your fancy!

[edit] Tasks

Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology/Tasks for the ongoing tasks of the project.

[edit] Articles needed or needing improvements

• Paraptenodytes antarcticus.
• Caseidae: Eunotosaurus, Knoxosaurus, and Oromycter.
• Pteridospermatophyta needs all genera, subfamilies etc.
• Aetogate

[edit] Topics requiring improvement

• The Cambrian explosion - efforts are being organised by a task force
• The eurypterids - most articles lack any references, and are little more than one sentence.
• I'm working to improve the coverage of early Cambrian taphonomic modes; I've created a couple of stubs but if anyone wanted to go around and expand them / clean up after me that would be great! They are linked to from {{Cambrian preservational modes}}. Thanks, Martin (Smith609 – Talk) 18:06, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
• Sarcopterygians... they need a lot of work. So I put up a task force to deal with it. --Sneaky Oviraptor18^{talk edits tribute} 15:36, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
• The "Big Five" is a new article in need of expert input. Thanks. -- Levine2112 ^discuss 05:22, 18 July 2008 (UTC)
• Marcellus_Formation#Fossils - I need some help improving this section to get the article from GA to FA status. Thanks. Dhaluza (talk) 10:39, 18 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] List maintenance

This includes adding newly described taxa, and creation of articles for genera (and redirects for synonyms).

See Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology/Lists for all the taxonomic lists

[edit] Vandal fighting

As with all other projects, we have a problem with vandalisation of articles (see vandalism and clean up for further information). Here is a quick guide for vandal fighters of this project:

1. Revert edits (obviously).
2. Leave a message on the user's talk page. See template messages and warning category for which templates to use.
3. Report persistant vandals to administrator intervention against vandalism.

[edit] Conflict of Interest

For any academic editor(s) who wish to reference their own work in articles or their own biography, we have set-up a system that allows other wiki-editors to make the edits for you, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology/COI. This is to ensure there are no conflicts of interest, either real or in appearance.

[edit] Review

If you fancy expanding getting an article off the starting blocks, here's where you can find all our "stub" articles:

[edit] Paleoart review and image guidelines

If you want to submit paleoart images for accuracy review, place them here as well as links to what you used as references: Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology/Paleoart review If you want to participate as reviewer, you can put the page on your watchlist. When removing an incorrect image from an article, please put it up here for review so it can be fixed, otherwise the image might not be used again.

You can also request new images for articles within the paleontology project here:[1]

Criterion sufficient for using an image:

• If image is included for historical value. In these cases the image caption should explain that it is an outdated reconstruction. Historical interest images should not be used in the taxobox or paleobox, but preferably in a section of the text discussing the history of a taxon.

Criteria sufficient to remove an image:

• Image differs appreciably from known skeletal elements.
  • Example: If a Lystrosaurus is reconstructed with four fingers.
• Image differs appreciably from implied skeletal elements (via bracketing).
  • Example: If an hesperornithid bird known only from postcranial elements is reconstructed without teeth, a feature made highly improbable by its phylogenetic position.
• Image differs appreciably from known non-skeletal elements.
  • Example: If an image of Castorocauda lacks hair.
• Image differs appreciably from implied non-skeletal elements.
  • Example: Scaphognathus should not be depicted without pycnofibres, since phylogenetic bracketing imply that it had them.
• Image pose differs appreciably from known range of motion.
  • Example: Plesiosaurs reconstructed with overly flexible necks.
  • Exception: If the range of motion is debated in the scientific literature, as is the case with sauropod neck position.
• Image depicts a scene which is anachronistic or contradicts known geographic range.
  • Example: Brontoscorpio chasing a Cephalaspis', two animals which did not live together.
  • Example: Dinosaurs from the Triassic or Jurassic depicted walking on grass, which did not exist at that time.
  • Exception: Walking with... screenshots or photographs of life-sized models taken in parks. It should be made clear in the caption that these are models or computer generated graphics.

[edit] Recognized content

[edit] Good articles

• Category:GA-Class Palaeontology articles

[edit] Featured articles

• Category:FA-Class Palaeontology articles
• Category:FL-Class Palaeontology articles

[edit] Did you Knows...

1. Astrohippus - 29 January 2009
2. Akanthosuchus - 14 February 2009
3. Haasiophis - 15 February 2009
4. Miragaia - 6 March 2009
5. Australodelphis - 7 March 2009
6. Phyllodontosuchus - 9 March 2009
7. Dibothrosuchus - 12 March 2009
8. Tianyulong - 26 March 2009
9. Hurdia - 28 March 2009
10. Gallardosaurus - 10 July 2009

[edit] Templates

[edit] Taxobox

Dakosaurus Fossil range: Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Subclass:	Diapsida
Infraclass:	Archosauromorpha
(unranked):	Mesoeucrocodylia
Suborder:	Thalattosuchia
Family:	Metriorhynchidae
Genus:	Dakosaurus Quenstedt, 1856
Species
D. maximus (Plieninger, 1846) Quenstedt, 1856 (type) D. andiniensis Vignaud & Gasparini, 1996 D. lapparenti Deblemas & Strannoloubsky, 1957
Synonyms
Plesiosuchus Owen, 1884

Here is an example of a taxobox:

 {{Taxobox | name =  |fossil_range =  | image =  | image_width = 250px | image_caption = | regnum = [[]] | phylum = [[]] | classis = [[]] | subclassis = [[]] | infraclassis = [[]] | ordo = [[]] | familia = [[]] | genus =  | genus_authority = [[]], [[]] |subdivision_ranks = Species |subdivision = * '' '' <small> [[]], [[]]</small> ([[type species|type]]) * '' ''<small> [[]], [[]]</small> |synonyms = * '' ''<small> [[]], [[]]</small> }} 

The full taxobox guide is located at Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/taxobox usage.

Detailed taxonomic information, including notes on how taxa are defined and how they vary between different systems, belongs in the article proper. Where possible, however, a standard table will be provided to allow easier navigation between related groups and quick identification of what sort of organisms are being discussed. These are called taxoboxes. A typical taxobox is shown at right (it belongs on the top right of the page Dakosaurus). For extinct plants see Hymenaea protera.

There are three main sections to the taxobox:

• A header showing the name of the group, sometimes followed by a representative image.
• A table showing the placement of the group in a typical classification system.
• A footer, whose content varies, showing the binomial name or a species, or a list of subgroups for higher taxa.

For fossil species, there is to be no status field. The only extinct species this should be used for are recently extinct ones (e.g. Yangtze river dolphin):

• | status = EX

Position: The taxobox generally belongs at the top right corner of the article, unless it has been decided otherwise on the relevant talk page - for instance, if the article is not primarily about the biological group.

[edit] Project banner

Template	Result	Usage
{{WikiProject Palaeontology}} or {{WP Palaeontology}}	WikiProject Palaeontology   PalaeontologyWikipedia:WikiProject PalaeontologyTemplate:WikiProject PalaeontologyPalaeontology articles Paleontology portal v • d • e This article is within the scope of WikiProject Palaeontology, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of palaeontology-related topics and create a standardized, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use resource on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.  ???  This article has not yet received a rating on the project's quality scale.  ???  This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.	Tagging appropriately Palaeontological related article talk pages
{{Palaeontologyportal}}	Paleontology portal	Tagging appropriately Palaeontological related article main pages

[edit] Userboxes

Template	Result	Usage
{{User WPPa}}	This user is a part of WikiProject Palaeontology, which aims to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Palaeontology. If you would like to participate, you can visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.	For user pages of members of the WikiProject
{{UBX Paleontology}}	This user is a member of WikiProject Paleontology.	Userbox for members of the WikiProject

[edit] Categories

• List of all subpages of this page

[edit] Microformat

Please be aware of the proposed Species microformat, particularly in relation to taxoboxes. Comments welcome on the wiki at that link.

[edit] Resources

Find more about Paleontology on Wikipedia's sister projects:

Definitions from Wiktionary
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Learning resources from Wikiversity

[edit] Peer-reviewed sources of information

Here are some links to websites that host peer-reviewed publications that will be of interest to all users of the WikiProject. Note that some do any free access to some recent articles, but you most likely will need a log-on to get full access. Subscription access:

• Science Direct
• Wiley Interscience
• Ingenta Connect
• JSTOR
• BioOne

[edit] Free access pulications

• Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences Papers usually have an english translation.
• Back issues of Palaeontology
• Proceedings of the Royal Society free access after one year
• American Museum of Natural History
• Sientific papers by Stephen Wroe, mainly Australian Marsupialia
• Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
• Dr. Anthony Russell University of Calgary
• Palaeotologica electronica
• PLoS ONE Paleontology Collection Everything from PLoS ONE can be freely used on Wikipedia

[edit] Journals that have some Palaeontological content

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America, free access

For anyone with an academic log-in (e.g. Athens) then:

• Web of Knowledge
• Web of Science

are fantastic resources for citation searches.

[edit] Database

• Palaeontological database for taxonomic and formation searches
• M. J. EVERHART’S MARINE REPTILE REFERENCES
• Matt Wedel, Randy Irmis, and Mike Taylor have prepared PDFs of many of O. C. Marsh's papers, at O. C. Marsh Papers. These are all in the public domain, and so also are great sources for images such as historical skeletal reconstructions and elements of anatomy.
• Non-English papers translated into English