Talk:Scolosaurus

Latest comment: 9 years ago by FunkMonk in topic Redundancy


Redundancy

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The text states that Scolosaurus is an "ankylosaurine ankylosaurid dinosaur". Isn't this redundant? Aren't all ankylosaurine dinosaurs ankylosaurids? For that matter, aren't all ankylosaurids dinosaurs? I'm all for specificity, and I can see why one might want to say it's an ankylosaurid dinosaur (not everybody knows what an anyklosaurid is), but "ankylosaurine ankylosaurid" seems a bit too much (only dino-taxonomists would be expected to know either term, and those that know one of them likely know the other), at least for the introductory sentence. --Piledhigheranddeeper (talk) 16:50, 12 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

That is exactly the point, not everyone know what ankylosaurine is, or that there is any difference between the sub- and the family. This way the relation between the groups is clarified quickly... Furthermore, this mean that it is a fairly derived ankylosaurid.. The main reason is that it provides more clarity, and it's what we usually do (even in the original papers...). I personally would be satisfied to mention only "ankylosaurine"... And about the "introductory" part - its important to distinguish it from other forms (but using simple terms) from the beginning as much as possible, otherwise many articles will "look" the same (1500~ articles with the introduction: "..is an extinct genus of a dinosaur." isn't such a good idea, I think...)Rnnsh (talk) 17:29, 12 January 2013 (UTC)Reply