Wikipedia:WikiProject Animals/Draft capitalization guidelines
{{superseded|Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Animals, plants, and other organisms}}
Please feel free to modify anything on this page
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Purpose of this draft proposal:
- To clarify and confirm existing uncontroversial guidelines and conventions, and present them in a "quick-reference" table format, for inclusion into [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Naming_conventions_(fauna)#Capitalisation_of_common_names_of_species the guidelines for the capitalization of common names of species] in order to:
:a) help prevent multiple page moves of existing articles;
:b) help ensure new articles are properly named when created
- To possibly agree upon new conventions currently unresolved.
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- Common names of animal species are written either in title case or sentence case depending upon the taxonomic group (shown below).
:*In title case, the first letter of every important word is capitalized (e.g., Grey Currawong, Duke of Burgundy), except for words that follow a hyphen (e.g., Brown-headed Spider Monkey).
:*In sentence case, no capital letters are used (e.g., brown bear, ray-finned shark), except for proper names (e.g., North American beaver, Roosevelt's elk).
- Names of higher categories of animals are always written in sentence case (e.g., kangaroo rat, river martin).
- Individual articles should be consistent in using either title or sentence case for common names. If an article on an animal species uses title-case title, all species mentioned in the text should have their name in title case.
= WikiProject examples =
class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; height: 200px" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
! width=10% | Animal type ! width=5% | Case to use ! width=15% | Example article title ! width=20% | Usage in prose ! width=10% | Current status ! width=10% | Capitalisation ! width=15% | Group use in prose ! width=22% | Remarks/exceptions ! width=3% | |
Mammals
| Sentence | The polar bear is a bear. | Mixed | Sentence | | Per naming conventions as WP Mammals doesn't have project specific guidelines. | |
Primates
| Sentence | The ring-tailed lemur is a primate. | Mixed – converting to lower | Sentence | | |
Cetaceans
| Sentence | The pygmy blue whale is a whale. | Mainly sentence | Sentence | | |
Rodents
| Sentence | The guinea pig is a species of rodent. | Mixed | Sentence | mouse | | |
rowspan="2" | Birds
| Upper | A Bald Eagle is a bird. | Actively upper | Sentence | Lower case should be used in contexts outside of ornithology | |
Upper
| A Palawan Peacock-Pheasant is a bird. | | Sentence | | see Talk:Palawan Peacock-Pheasant | |
Insects
| Sentence | The red imported fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) is one of over 280 species ... | 100% sentence | Sentence | Lepidoptera and Odonata species may be capitalised | |
Butterflies and moths
| Mixed | The gypsy moth is a moth. | More upper | Sentence | skipper | Ditto | |
Fishes
| Sentence | The ocean sunfish is a fish. | Mainly sentence | Sentence | catfish | |
Sharks
| Sentence | The oceanic whitetip shark is a shark. | 100% sentence | Sentence | | |
Amphibians and reptiles
| Sentence | The Komodo dragon is a reptile. | Mixed | Sentence | | |
Turtles
| Sentence | The loggerhead sea turtle[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00EEDA1731F934A1575AC0A9619C8B63 prose use in New York Times] is a turtle. | 100% sentence | Sentence | | |
Arthropods
| Sentence | American lobsters are usually bluish green to brown. | 100% sentence | Sentence | lobster | Few common name articles | |
Spiders
| Sentence | Katipo | A bite from the katipo produces a toxic syndrome. | 100% sentence | Sentence | | |
Cephalopods
| | | | | | | | |
Gastropods
| Sentence | The lightning whelk is a large edible sea snail. | Mostly sentence | Sentence | | |
Addendum - breeds
class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; height: 200px" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
! width=10% | Animal type ! width=5% | Case to use ! width=15% | Example article title ! width=20% | Usage in prose ! width=10% | Current status ! width=10% | Capitalisation ! width=15% | Group use in prose ! width=22% | Remarks/exceptions ! width=3% | |
Dogs
| Upper | Beagle | A Beagle is a dog. | Actively upper | - | - | Guidelines not followed | |
Equine
| Upper | The American Quarter Horse is a breed of horse. | Actively upper | - | - | Distinction between breed and type often must be determined on a case-by-case basis | |
=See also=
References
{{reflist}}