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This WikiProject, WikiProject Palaeontology, aims to organise an effort to expand and improve Wikipedia's coverage of palaeontology-related articles. The guidelines below are intended to help editors focus and give an idea of what is needed by the project and how to attain it.
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, mammals and extinction - WikiProject Palaeontology provides a central portal for co-ordinated work across these areas, and topics not broad enough to have a dedicated WikiProject.
| Family tree of related WikiProjects |
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| WikiProject Palaeontology is a descendant of WikiProject Tree of Life, and WikiProject Geology, with extensive overlap with both biology and geology articles. |
Hot articles
| 65 edits | Qingjiang biota |
| 17 edits | Megalochelys |
| 14 edits | Megateuthis |
| 11 edits | Aegopinella denudata |
| 9 edits | Panthera gombaszoegensis |
| 8 edits | Archaeological site of Atapuerca |
| 8 edits | 2024 in paleomammalogy |
| 8 edits | Megalonyx |
| 8 edits | Stegodon aurorae |
| 7 edits | Republica weatbrooki |
Article alerts and statistics
Did you know
- 31 May 2024 – Republica weatbrooki (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Kevmin (t · c); see discussion
- 28 May 2024 – Erismatopterus (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Kevmin (t · c); see discussion
- 14 May 2024 – Phenotypic disparity (talk · edit · hist) was nominated for DYK by Interaccoonale (t · c); see discussion
Good article nominees
- 19 May 2024 – Dichodon (mammal) (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by PrimalMustelid (t · c); start discussion
- 06 Mar 2024 – Xiphodon (talk · edit · hist) was GA nominated by PrimalMustelid (t · c); start discussion
Peer reviews
- 20 Aug 2022 – Kentrosaurus (talk · edit · hist) has been put up for PR by Augustios Paleo (t · c); see discussion
Articles to be merged
- 27 May 2024 – Ornithothoraces (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Avialae by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 27 May 2024 – Pygostylia (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Avialae by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 27 May 2024 – Avebrevicauda (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Avialae by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 21 May 2024 – Eusauropoda (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Sauropoda by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 21 May 2024 – Neosauropoda (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Sauropoda by A Cynical Idealist (t · c); see discussion
- 20 May 2024 – Carcharomodus (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Carcharomodus escheri by Kodiak Blackjack (t · c); see discussion
- 29 Apr 2024 – Simosthenurus occidentalis (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Simosthenurus by FunkMonk (t · c); see discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – Dromaeosaurinae (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Eudromaeosauria by LittleLazyLass (t · c); see discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – Saurornitholestinae (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Eudromaeosauria by LittleLazyLass (t · c); see discussion
- 22 Apr 2024 – Troodontinae (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for merging to Troodontidae by LittleLazyLass (t · c); see discussion
- (20 more...)
Articles to be split
- 11 Nov 2023 – Geologic time scale (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by GeoWriter (t · c); see discussion
- 21 Aug 2023 – Kota Formation (talk · edit · hist) is proposed for splitting by Fritzmann2002 (t · c); see discussion
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!
Tasks
Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Palaeontology/Tasks for the ongoing tasks of the project.
Cladogram requests
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Cladogram requests - Cladogram requests can be dealt with my requesting here.
Articles needing attention
These articles have been flagged by users as needing general attention or attention from experts. Please try and resolve the issue(s) quickly and remove the tag when done so.
Articles needed or needing improvements
Articles in urgent need of improvement are listed here. Please remove entries after making improvements.
- General articles needed: List of Ice Age species preserved as permafrost mummies
- Notable palaeontologists needed: Walter P. Coombs, Eva Koppelhus, David M. Martill, Anthony S. Cheke, David Unwin
- Notable paleoartists needed: Alfons and Adrie Kennis, Jason Brougham, Scott Hartman
- Lists with many red links: List of therapsids, List of prehistoric mammals, List of extinct cetaceans, List of fossil primates, List of fossil birds, List of prehistoric bony fish, List of prehistoric cartilaginous fish, List of prehistoric jawless fish, List of placoderms, List of acanthodians, List of Ediacaran genera, and a horde of invertebrate lists can be found here: Recent lists of years in paleontology also have many red links.
- Pages with many red links: Sparassodonta, Condylarthra, Rhinocerotidae, Brontotheriidae, Antilocapridae, Anthracotheriidae, Hyaenidae, Amynodontidae, Oxyaenidae, Hyaenodontidae, Glyptodontidae, Pampatheriidae, Proterotheriidae, Macraucheniidae, Toxodontidae, Isotemnidae, Notohippidae, Leptictida, Cimolesta, Hyracoidea, Pteridospermatophyta, Ituzaingó Formation, South American land mammal age
- Individual articles for improvement: Paraptenodytes, Caseidae: Knoxosaurus and Oromycter, Ocepechelon, Hyracotherium, Solza (started), Andrewsarchus, Aral Formation (started), Huehuecuetzpalli, Praepusa. List of paleontologists is in need of expansion.
- Expand with translation: The following articles may be substantially expanded with appropriately-sourced translation from foreign language Wiki articles. Please see Wikipedia:Translation for guidance.
- Rework navbox - {{Proboscidea Genera}}, Navbox too wide
Topics requiring improvement
- The Cambrian explosion - efforts are being organised by a task force
- Sarcopterygians... they need a lot of work. So I put up a task force to deal with it. --Sneaky Oviraptor18talk edits tribute 15:36, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
- Paleontologists - biographical information about notable paleontologists needs to be expanded. I'd like to revive the paleontologists task force. Hza a 9 Hza a 9 (talk) 17:02, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
- Extinct squamates - there's a task force for that now! Borophagus (talk) 17:35, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
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
Vandal fighting
As with all other projects, we have a problem with vandalism of articles (see vandalism and clean up for further information). Here is a quick guide for vandal fighters of this project:
- Revert edits.
- Leave a message on the user's talk page. See template messages and warning category for which templates to use.
- Report persistant vandals to administrator intervention against vandalism.
Review
Articles for review
The following articles are being considered for upgrade (FA, GA, DYK, etc.) and could benefit from general peer review by project members:
Article expansion
If you fancy expanding getting an article off the starting blocks, here's where you can find all our "stub" articles:
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Paleoart review
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 There you can also request new images for articles. 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.
Which articles should be created
Editors sometimes wonder whether it is necessary to create a separate article for every species in a genus. In the case of monospecific genera, the general WP:TOL guideline is to create a single article at the genus level. For example, an article exists at Saadanius and a redirect at Saadanius hijazensis. Exceptions exist when the genus name needs WP:disambiguation.
It has been agreed that species should generally be redirected to a genus page, similar to WP:DINO guidelines, as there is usually much less info available for prehistoric than extant species to create substantial articles. If there eventually is enough text about each species, they may have a separate section in the genus article; see Cimoliopterus for an example. If a single species is well-known enough and eventually generates enough content to make the genus article too WP:too long, a separate species article can be created; other species in said genus should only be split from the main article when their texts grows too long as well (as is for example the case with many mammoth species).
In the case of genera that contain multiple species, a degree of common sense is necessary. Wikipedia:MERGE lists three reasons that it may be appropriate to combine the species into a single page:
- There may be a substantial overlap in the content of the articles (for instance, if the species are found in the same locality and are morphologically and biologically very similar);
- There may be very little text that can be written about individual species (if a species is very similar to others in its genus and only differs in minor featutres, an article may simply read "Orthoconus grandi is a species of Orthoconus whose shell is greater than 2 mm in height").
- It may be necessary to have context from a broader article in order for readers to understand the species' context. For instance, the phylogenetic context of Halkieria requires lengthy explanation, so in this instance it is appropriate to have multiple genera in a single article.
Dubious genera warrant separate articles and should not be redirected. Dubious species and species that have been incorrectly placed in a specific genus should be redirected to the closest higher level taxon it can be assigned to. Articles should not be created for any specimens or taxa that have not been assigned a valid scientific name.
Palaeontology biographies
Wikipedia welcomes articles on notable paleontologists. However, please review Wikipedia's notability requirements for scholars before creating articles on palaeontologists or other scientists. In short, the subject must have made major contributions to their field, as recognized by other reliable sources, and/or have received significant coverage. Simply publishing articles or naming species may not be sufficient to establish notability, and there may not be enough material to write a satisfying, complete biographical article. The fact that a scientist's name has been linked on Wikipedia, or mentioned briefly in a book, may not be sufficient to establish notability. Writing about any living person requires special sensitivity, see: Biographies of living persons. You can find more tips and guidelines at WikiProject Biography
Also see the paleontologists taskforce for efforts to improve Wikipedia's coverage of paleontologists.
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.
Recognized contentedit
Featured topicsedit
- Ferugliotheriidae - 23 August 2011
- Raphinae - 8 August 2014
- Pterygotioidea - 25 September 2018
- Adelophthalmidae - 7 August 2019
