Talk:Ocoee salamander

Wiki Education assignment: Behavioral Ecology 2022

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 August 2022 and 9 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Eylul.horozoglu (article contribs). Peer reviewers: Frogboi123, Luiscville, Yunfeng Ge, Sophieeichler, NineAilrulus.

— Assignment last updated by Froggo1324 (talk) 19:58, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Peer Review

Overall, I think this page looks great! I added some links to other pages that I think will be useful. I also moved some of the information from your short description because I did not think It was necessary to put there. I made some minor grammatical and spelling changes as well. User:Sophieeichler — Preceding undated comment added 21:18, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

This article was really strong and only required minor changes to words when there was an incorrect plural or missing letter. I was intrigued by the response of the ocoee salamander to different predators, so I did some research and added the following Predators section on Oct 20. The article had only had one sentence on it before, and felt like one of the very few sections which needed more:

It is preyed upon by birds, snakes, and even another species of salamander. The ocoee salamander has developed many different anti-predator defenses to use in different situations. When approached by a predator it may remain immobile, but is more likely to flee when it encounters the Spring salamander (Gyrinophilus porphyriticus). The salamanders are also prone to autotomizing the tail to avoid an attack. When attacked by a snake, ocoee salamanders writhe about and try to bite the snake on the head. Luiscville (talk) 20:44, 8 December 2022 (UTC)

Major changes

I wrote a 1500-word addition to the page, covering topics like phylogeny, habitat, mating, and parental care. I also removed a little section on mating because it was repetitive. The 2 photos I added were specifically photographed and uploaded by Todd Pierson, whom I emailed and kindly requested that he upload the photos on Wikipedia Commons for use.

Eylul.horozoglu (talk) 19:58, 13 October 2022 (UTC)

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Sennecaster (talk) 03:32, 24 October 2022 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

Ocoee Salamander with red legs

• ... that the Ocoee salamander from Tennessee is named after the Cherokee word for Passiflora incarnata (passionflower)? Source: Pyron, R. Alexander, and David A. Beamer. “Systematics of the Ocoee Salamander (Plethodontidae: Desmognathus Ocoee), with Description of Two New Species from the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains.” Zootaxa, vol. 5190, no. 2, 2022, pp. 207–240., https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5190.2.3.
  • Reviewed:

5x expanded by Eylul.horozoglu (talk). Self-nominated at 20:43, 13 October 2022 (UTC).

• @Eylul.horozoglu: Article meets criteria and hook is interesting. The Passiflora incarnata article is not being nominated so it should not be bold in the hook. Also suggest wikilinking Cherokee and Tennessee in the hook. Assuming good faith on the mostly offline, but high-quality, sources. Nomination is a pass, pending hook adjustments and completion of the QPQ review. --Al Ameer (talk) 18:52, 14 October 2022 (UTC)
• @Al Ameer son: This is Eylul.horozoglu's first nomination so a QPQ isn't required. Onegreatjoke (talk) 23:04, 22 October 2022 (UTC)

• Thanks Onegreatjoke, I hadn’t noticed. Nomination good to go then. Went ahead and restored passiflora link (only issue was the bolding not the link itself). —Al Ameer (talk) 06:22, 23 October 2022 (UTC)

Peer review

I added more summary in the leading section to make sure it covers every section discussed in the following content. I also moved a sentence in the habitat section into the diet section because it’s about diet. I also rephrased some sentences to make them more concise.

Sentences I added:

There are five distinct species in the genus Desmognathus, but reproduction barrier is rare. This salamander has a variety of colors and patterns and got its name from Tennessee state wildflower. Its diet mainly includes small invertebrates. The mating behavior include pheromonal communication and courting. After oviposition, this salamander guards its eggs for about three months.

Sentence I rephrased and moved:

Potential food source includes flies, ants, wasps, beetles, spiders, mites, and a whole variety of other organisms.

They dependence on water for reproduction, but their short larval period allows them to take advantage of wetted habitats such as small streams and wet rock faces. Yunfeng Ge (talk) 03:21, 18 October 2022 (UTC) Yunfeng Ge (talk) 01:57, 18 October 2022 (UTC)

Updates to Diet section and clarity/sentence structure

The diet section was expanded to include studies about D. ocoee's preferred feeding territories and the impact of stress on feeding behavior in males and females. Several changes were made in the "Description" section to improve sentence clarity. Frogboi123 (talk) 04:35, 21 October 2022 (UTC)

capitalization of "Ocoee"

The article prose indicates that the salamander is called "ocoee" based on a common noun in Cherokee. If the designation came from the Ocoee River then it should be capitalized here, but since it does not then it appears MOS:COMMONNAMES would govern. ~TPW 14:11, 27 October 2022 (UTC)