Talk:Cuticle

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[edit] Merge from Plant Cuticle article

According to the disambiguation page for Cuticle, [here it is]

Cuticle, or cuticula (latin for "covering"), may refer to:

  • Plant cuticle, or cuticula, a waxy polymeric film covering all aerial plant surfaces
  • Cuticle (nail), in human anatomy, the fold of skin at the proximal end of the nail
  • Cuticula (invertebrate), the outside of the epidermis of many invertebrates
  • Enamel cuticle, a covering of the crown of a newly erupted tooth, quickly destroyed by chewing
  • Cuticle (hair), or cuticula pili, a layer of overlapping cells that surround the hair cortex and lock the hair shaft in its follicle

Do you think it makes sense to merge Plant Cuticle into this article under the subheading Plant Cuticle? SueHay 17:53, 12 February 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Cleanup complete?

With a little disambiguation work done — see cuticle (disambiguation) — I think cleanup on this article is now complete. Thoughts? jareha 18:07, 27 December 2005 (UTC)

Does not a disambiguation page in principle contain the less common uses of the word? I'd say the use of the word cuticle in botany and entomology is pretty balanced, insect cuticles aren't more important than those of plants and really in every day usage they would probably be talking about the cuticles at the end of your fingers rather than either of the other two.. Speh 01:01, 5 January 2006 (UTC)Speh

No, it is not. The disambig page brings you to the Exoskeleton, which is misleading, because the structure of cuticle in the invertebrates is not explained in the Exoskeleton, which is strangely enough preoccupied with Artificial human exoskeletons (subdivided in three sections: Exoskeletons in history, Exoskeletal devices in medicine, and Exoskeletons in modern and near-future technology). What is needed, probably, is to place all the information on the cuticle in invertebrates in the Cuticle article as a section. It is a great topic because cuticular epithelia are widely spread over diverse groups of invertebrates, and some of them are quite different from each other. As for the usage, we should care more about the visitors of the Wiki, than about them talking of the cuticle on fingernails. Just take a brief look here: [for Cuticle]. You will clearly see that the invertebrate cuticle is in greatest demand and beats easily all fingernails and plants. Alexei Kouprianov 07:39, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Don't move Plant Cuticle back to Cuticle

I don't see a case for moving Plant Cuticle back to Cuticle. What does this achieve? I separated it from Cuticle a while back because Plant Cuticles are a discrete topic, and a self-contained area of scientific research, with minimal, if any, overlap with other types of Cuticle. I don't think tooth cuticle interest group has any concerns about plant cuticles, or vice versa. The main case for bringing Plant Cuticle back into Cuticle is merely semantic - the word is the same. Unfortunately, the topics are distinct. At present the redirects do a fine job of getting the visitor to Cuticle to the place he/she wants to be. I advocate leaving it as it is - it ain't broke so don't try to fix it. Plantsurfer 11:24, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

I agree that a merge isn't the best solution, but can anyone expand the information on cuticle? Most people would be looking for the anthropocentric meaning -- as in, fingernails. --SueHay 23:57, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
I'm withdrawing the merge suggestion. --SueHay 02:30, 29 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for this SueHay. However, I agree with you that the information on cuticle is in a bit of a parlous state and would benefit from attention. One rainy day ... Plantsurfer 17:00, 29 March 2007 (UTC)