Wikipedia:WikiProject Primates

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Primates
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Contents

[edit] Scope

This WikiProject aims to help organise our collection of entries about primates. It includes all extant species within the Order Primates as well as the extinct species. The project also includes articles related to primate behaviour, psychology and notable primatologists e.g. (respectively) brachiation, fission-fusion society, Frans de Waal, etc.

[edit] Related Wikiprojects

It is worth keeping one eye on several Wikiprojects that overlap with this one or that have made significant progress towards completion, including Wikipedia:WikiProject Mammals, Wikipedia:WikiProject Cetaceans, Wikipedia:WikiProject Birds, Wikipedia:WikiProject Ecoregions, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Cats.

[edit] Parentage

This WikiProject is an offshoot of WikiProject Tree of Life

WikiProject Biology
WikiProject Tree of Life
WikiProject Animals
WikiProject Mammals
WikiProject Primates

[edit] Participants

Click here to join. Please feel free to add this userbox to your user page. {{User WikiProject Primates}}

 This user is a member of WikiProject Primates.

Inactive since 2006

[edit] Featured content

[edit] Images

Gibraltar Barbary Macaque
Image of the day for September 27, 2007

Emperor Tamarin
Image of the day for March 24, 2008

White-fronted Capuchin
Image of the day for May 22, 2008

[edit] Articles

[edit] Structure and contents

Common Chimpanzee[1]

Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Primates
Family: Hominidae
Genus: Pan
Species: P. troglodytes
Binomial name
Pan troglodytes
(Blumenbach, 1775)
distribution of Common Chimpanzee. 1. Pan troglodytes verus. 2. P. t. vellerosus. 3. P. t. troglodytes. 4. P. t. schweinfurthii.
distribution of Common Chimpanzee. 1. Pan troglodytes verus. 2. P. t. vellerosus. 3. P. t. troglodytes. 4. P. t. schweinfurthii.

In general, primate entries should have taxobox. This is something we have inherited from the Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/taxobox usage. There are many examples there to look at.

There are several example primate taxoboxes, suitable for cut and paste insertion into entries:

[edit] Range maps

The basic template map is the world map without country borders that can be found at Wikipedia:Blank maps.

The blue colour shows where the species is (sometimes) present and white is where it is absent.

The grey colour is R:205 G:195 B:204 The blue colour is R:0 G:0 B:255

If you edit a map, try to save at full-quality so that no blurring occurs at the edge of the countries - this blurring makes further editing of the map more difficult because the "fill" function of many image editing programs doesn't work with the blurred edges.

[edit] Names and titles

In general, use the formal common name for article titles.

Sometimes exceptions need to be made; some individual creatures (usually newly discovered ones) do not yet have a formal common name. Some distinct groups are known only by their scientific name.

Summary of naming guidelines - common names

  • The name of a particular species is always capitalised. Common Chimpanzee.
  • The word immediately following a hyphen in a species name is not capitalised; White-headed Lemur.
  • The name of a group of species is not capitalised; apes.
  • Alternative names should be mentioned where appropriate; with bold type in the opening line of the article if they are in wide use, elsewhere in the article (with or without the bold type) if they are less-used. This is usually a matter for individual judgement.

Summary of naming guidelines - scientific names

  • Orders, families and other taxa above genus level are written with an initial capital and in roman (not italic) text: bats belong to the class Chiroptera; rats and mice are members of the family Muridae and the order Rodentia.
  • The names of genera are always italicised and capitalised: Turdus, Falco, Anas.
  • Species epithets are never capitalised, always italicised, and always preceded by either the genus name or a one-letter abbreviation of it: Alcedo pusilla or A. pusilla, Cisticola juncidis or C. juncidis. The abbreviation is used only when it is unambiguous in the context of the article.

[edit] What to include

The following items are desirable for articles of all levels, although the detail will vary depending on several factors. These items do not need to be separated into distinct sections; text should flow in continuous prose so far as possible. The order this information is included is also relatively unimportant, although the order listed is generally preferred.

  • Description (physical, behavioral) - what makes this (group of) critter(s) different from its close relatives? Include here evidence about cognitive capacities.
  • Habitat - where does it live? how broadly does it roam? maps are good
  • Cultural, Religious, Economic, etc. Importance - what impact has it had on humans? Include here use for experimental purposes that do not relate to other headings.
  • Classification - how does it fit into the tree of life? Include subspecies
  • Conservation - what are current population numbers and how is it classified on the IUCN Red List.
  • References - it's very important that all facts are referenced.

When the article is complete add {{PrimateTalk|importance=|class=}}. If the article needs a photo the code would look like this: {{PrimateTalk|importance=|class=|needs-photo=yes}}. You can add grades according to importance and the class of the article according to the Assessment page.

[edit] Categories

The following category schema is being used. As the number of created/completed articles increases, others can be developed. Other related categories may develop in conjunction with the ones listed, but are not maintained by this WikiProject. Most should be self-explanatory. A few of the articles about prehistoric taxa are doubly linked because their taxonomic placement is significantly uncertain (Proconsul, for instance, maybe an ape, but it may not be). Early hominids contains the prehistoric taxa after the Pan/Homo split and, therefore, is using the term "hominid" in the anthropological sense and not the primatological sense.

                                                   Prehistoric mammals
                                                            |
                                                            V
           /-------------------------------------> Prehistoric primates
           |                                                |
           |                                                |
Primates --+--> Prosimians ----> Prehistoric prosimians <---+
           |                                                |
           +--> Monkeys -------> Prehistoric monkeys <------+
           |     |   |                                      |
           |     V   V                                      |
           |    OW  NW                                      |
           |                                                |
           \--> Apes -----------> Prehistoric apes <--------/
                                         |
                                         V
                                   Early hominids

[edit] Task list and progress

  1. Create article for each Family
  2. Create an article for each Genus (unless only one species in Genus)
  3. Create an article for each Subfamily (unless only one Genus in Subfamily)
  4. Create an article for each Superfamily
  5. Ensure all Family articles are taxonomically consistent
    1. Ensure all articles between Order and Family rank are taxonomically consistent
      1. Prosimian article should be split to create Strepsirrhini
      2. Merge ape and hominoidea.
    2. Ensure all articles between Family and Genus rank are taxonomically consistent
  6. Create articles for all Species and for needed Genera
    1. Create links for all species articles on appropriate articles
    2. Create lists of uncreated articles to add to category pages:
      1. Article requests
        1. General primate articles
        2. New World monkey articles - only subspecies and extinct genera left
        3. Old World monkey articles
        4. Ape articles - only subspecies left

[edit] Taxonomy and references

Primate taxonomy is by no means fully known or agreed upon. The following references are currently being used for this Project. See the discussion for other possibilities.

  • Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition (2005) - this is now the primary source for primate classification - use {{MSW3}} or one of its its derivatives (such as {{MSW3 Groves}}) in the reference section.
  • Primate Taxonomy (Smithsonian Institute Press, 2001), Colin Groves (ISBN 156098872X) - formerly the primary source
  • Russell Mittermeier et al., Lemurs of Madagascar, Conservation International (1994) or Russell Mittermeier et al., Lemurs of Madagascar 2nd Edition, Conservation International (2006) are particularly good for insights of habitat, diet, range of lemur species.
  • Mikko's Phylogeny Archive, Primate node - particularly good for relationships among the extant and extinct primates, although some nomenclature differs from MSW3

[edit] Talk pages

Place {{PrimateTalk}} at the top of an article's talk page. This will help direct editors to this page for guidance.

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