Talk:Weddell Seal

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I suppose this should really be at Weddell seal (lowercase s)? Everyking 00:22, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• I'm not 100% certain, but I know that all the birds are uppercase (Sabine's Sunbird, Sabine's Gull, Lesser-spotted Woodpecker) etc etc, and I assume that it is the same for mammals. Outside of wikipedia having common names upper or lower case seems to be a matter of personal preference, if all the journal articles I've read are anything to go by. I'll check before I fix the first sentence of this article though. Sabine's Sunbird 00:54, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
  • I went ahead and made the lowercase s a redirect, just for good measure. Everyking 04:05, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It should be in capital letters,i.e. 'Weddel Seal'

Birds are the only species whose common name is capitalized. Weddell seals, however, remain somewhat of an exception to the rule, as the word "Weddell" comes from a person's last name (i.e. a proper noun). As such, it is definitely incorrect to capitalize "seal" in addition to Weddell. So, it is most accurate to write "Weddell seals".

This argument, though, is all essentially arbitrary semantics. In science, it is most appropriate to call the species by their scientific name (Leptonychotes weddelli).