Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Komodo dragon/archive1

The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted 00:00, 16 July 2007.

Komodo dragon

After months of on-and-off editing, I believe this article has reached completion. It's got nice prose, a lot of citations, and a nice amount of pictures. I pretty much exhausted my library resources and opened two peer reviews, which can be found here and here. I've also asked Wikiproject Reptiles and Amphibians to take a look at it before. Pass or not, I still hope that there are things that can be remedied in the text. bibliomaniac 15 ^{BUY NOW!} 20:57, 18 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment. This has come a long way since its peer review. I have some minor formatting issues and other points to make. Some of the paragraphs are singel sentences and can be merged to make decent lenght ones (particularly in the conservation section). Attacks can be expanded slightly, I recall hearing about a tourist that dissapered and theer are a number of non-fatal attacks per year, how many I am uncertain but it is worth mentioning, particularly in how it affects their conservation status (large carnivore conservation is always a hard sell where humans or their stock are a prey item). Discovery, conservation and capitvity should be made subheadings in a relationhsip with humans, and the bit about the attack on Sharon Stone's husband is kind of trivia-ish. Finally the lead needs a bit more. This is all easily achievable. Good work. Sabine's Sunbird talk 01:06, 19 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've expanded the lead. It could probably use a bit of tinkering with though. I have one or two things I want to check refwise and I'll do that today or tomorrow. Sabine's Sunbird talk 20:48, 21 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fixes needed - Good work so far and FA is achievable but a few things need tweaking:

Lead needs to summarise comprehensively points in article and be 2-3 paras long. In terms of style I'd put the scientific name 2nd after the initial common name, then have a subordinate clause with alternate names.

*Naturally, Komodo dragons are found exclusively in Indonesia, on .... - I'd drop the "Naturally" and palce a semicolon after Indonesia and make the next two clauses into a sentence. I'd not use "exclusively" as teh connotiation is evolving into something quite different to the original meaning. Try "only" or "solely".

*All units of measurement should be abbreviated with the between number and unit.

*For shelter, dragons dig holes, that can measure from 1-3 metres (3-10 feet) wide, with their powerful forelimbs and claws - lotta commas in this one. Try and rephrase if possible

*Because of their slow metabolisms, large dragons may only eat 12 meals a year. - lose the 's' on metabolisms, and the meaning is unclear - strictly limited to 12 meals or can get a way with only eating 12 meals...

*In eating, the largest animals generally eat first, while the smaller ones follow a social hierarchy.. - lose the first "In eating" and maybe lose "social"

*By use of body language and rumbling hisses, the largest male asserts his dominance, and the smaller males indicate their humbleness. - Again too many commas and the clasues can be streamlined -how about "The largest male asserts his dominance and the smaller males their submission by use of body language and rumbling hisses." Wouldn't use "humbleness"

*Against two dragons of equal size, fighting may occur in the form of wrestling. - ick. Try "Dragons of equal size may resort to wrestling"

*The loser who is cast down will usually retreat, but if they cannot make a quick escape, the victor may kill and eat them - try "Losers usually retreat, though have been known to have been killed and eaten by victors"

*.. evolved to feed on the dwarf stegodons (a relative of the elephant) that.. try "evolved to feed on an extinct dwarf elephant, Stegodon that..." - Stegodon not in common English usage so shoukld be italicized

*Unusually, the Komodo dragon has been observed.. - I'd drop the unusuallu - the sentence speaks for itself.

..hard scratches to the back, and licking.. - lose the comma here.
Note: Since I'm a Yankee, I use the serial comma.

*The female will lay her eggs in the ground or in tree hollows (thereby lending them a certain degree of protection). - commas better than parentheses here.

*Final para in Parthenogenesis subsection - commas better than parentheses here.

*Komodo dragon is gradually getting accustomed to.. - "becoming accustomed"..

*Although very rare, Komodo dragons have been known to kill humans. - dragons are rare or attacks are rare?

*On June 4, 2007, a.. - lose the first comma

*In the In captivity section, many zoos have their own articles so try and find more specific wikilinks

Finally, if there is any material on dragons in local folklore or mythology that would be good to add. If there is - creat a Dragons and humans section with Folklore and In captivity as subsections. Also, I don't see any material on classification. What are its closest relatives. Is it related especially closely to Megalania or Australian species or what.

Note: Surprisingly, there's not much mention about Komodo dragons in folklore other than their obvious namesake. Also, it says in the article that the Komodo dragon is in the monitor lizard family.

PS: I'm not a fan of See Also sections and all should be able to be linked within the body of the article and the list removed if possible.

More to come.cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 02:30, 19 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I've addressed most of these concerns, but I'm very unsure about how to expand the lead. I suppose I shall drop by some WP:AAR member's talk pages and see if they can assist me. bibliomaniac 15 ^{BUY NOW!} 03:28, 19 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Comment Aren't reptile and amphibian common names capitalized like bird common names? I was pretty sure they were. Anywho, you can easily expand the lead, just summarize more of the article. A sentence or two for each section perhaps. Sheep81 09:09, 21 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

There was actually a bit of a debate on that. I originally moved it to Komodo Dragon, but I later looked at my sources and noticed that most of them had Komodo dragon. Whatever the case, Komodo must be capitalized because it is the name of the place where the Komodo dragon inhabits. bibliomaniac 15 ^{BUY NOW!} 17:11, 21 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose for now - see the citation needed tags I inserted. Spamsara 11:54, 12 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose, per content commentary above, citation needed tags, and unformatted references (see citation examples for information on formatting references). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 01:03, 13 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.