Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna)
 | This guideline documents an English Wikipedia naming convention. Editors should generally follow it, though exceptions may apply. Substantive edits to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on this guideline's talk page. |
This guideline describes the conventions for the naming of articles on fauna, that is, animals.
Its advice also applies to protists, when appropriate, though instructions provided by WP:Naming conventions (flora) are sometimes more applicable, especially when the article uses the scientific name.
Use the most common name when possible
editArticle titles are determined by the application of five criteria. The article title should usually consist of the name that is most common in English, following WP:Article titles § Common names. For well known animals, this will normally be the vernacular name (exceptions are detailed below):
- Cheetah, Eastern newt, Giraffe, Koala, Sheep. (See § Capitalisation and italicisation below for upper/lower case guidelines).
Use the singular form, including for groups or types of animals, following WP:Naming conventions (plurals): Beetle not Beetles (the latter redirects to the former). (See § Capitalisation and italicisation below for upper/lower case guidelines).
Do not use vernacular names when it is not clear to what the name refers (see WP:Article titles § Precision). The name sardine is used for many different species of small, oily fishes; the appropriate things to do are to write an article describing the attributes the species have in common under that name, and create separate articles for each genus. However, when there is a clear core meaning for the common name, with other meanings by analogy, then it is okay to use the common name for the "true" group:
- Many elongated fishes are known as "eels", but "true eels" are in the order Anguilliformes, so it's appropriate to place them at the article name "Eel", with the others listed at Eel (disambiguation).
When what is the most common name in English, or the veracity of that most common name, is so disputed in reliable sources that it cannot be neutrally ascertained, prefer the common name most used (orthography aside) by international zoological nomenclature authorities over regional ones. When there is no common name or no consensus can be reached on the most common name, or if it isn't clear what taxon the common name refers to (as in the sardine example above), use the scientific name:
- Pegomya geniculata is a fly without common names.
- Eulimella torquata was first described in 2011, and has no common name.
- Drosophila melanogaster has no common name other than "fruit fly", which it shares with other species.
- Fish in Sciaenidae are in some cases known as "drums", but drum is used for the musical instrument.
Monotypic taxa
editA monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group which only contains a single subgroup (e.g., a genus with only one known species, even a subphylum with one family with one genus). In such a case, the ranks with identical member organisms should not be separated into different articles, and the article (if there is no common name) should go under the scientific name of lowest rank, but no lower than the monotypic genus. Redirects should be created from the other ranks to the actual article. (See Template:Speciesbox#Monospecific genera for the taxobox for monotypic genera at the genus name.)
- The species name Myrmecobius fasciatus and its monotypic genus Myrmecobius are both redirects to the article at the common name of the species, Numbat.
- The six-species genus Xenoturbella has redirects from the monotypic family Xenoturbellidae and subphylum Xenoturbellida.
- The genus Nodocephalosaurus has a redirect from its sole species, Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis (tagged with {{R to monotypic taxon}}).
- The order Axomonadida and its monotypic family Tetraheliidae redirect to their single genus Tetrahelia, as does the sole species Tetrahelia pterbica.
The exception is when a monotypic genus name needs to be disambiguated. The article should then be at the species, since this is a more natural form of disambiguation.
- Erica eugenia with a redirect at Erica (spider) (tagged with {{R from monotypic taxon|spider}}) rather than vice versa since Erica is a DAB page unlike Nodocephalosaurus.
Redirects
editThe article title and content should match on the organism/group name. Redirects should be made to the article from other names for it (and spelling, capitalisation, etc., variants), as well as from any lower taxa or other subtopics that do not have their own articles.
Make redirects from alternative common names:
Make redirects from scientific names when they are not the article title:
- Notophthalmus viridescens redirects to Eastern newt
- Coleoptera redirects to Beetle
- Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis redirects to Nodocephalosaurus
There may be several scientific names that need to be redirected:
- See § Monotypic taxa, above, for several examples.
- Obsolete scientific names should redirect to the article under the common name or current scientific name.
Make redirects from alternative capitalisations (many guidebooks and specialist literature in various zoological fields tend to capitalise, so we should account for both usages):
- Eastern Newt redirects to Eastern newt
- It is not necessary to create redirects from incorrectly capitalised scientific names, e.g. Nodocephalosaurus Kirtlandensis (capital K on species name)
Make redirects from singular and plural English forms of scientific names:
- Xenoturbellid and Xenoturbellids redirect to Xenoturbella
- Nodocephalosaur and Nodocephalosaurs redirect to Nodocephalosaurus
Capitalisation and italicisation
editCapitalisation of article titles follows general Manual of Style guidance on the use of capital letters.
Common (vernacular) names
editArticles whose titles are the common (vernacular) names of animals are titled in sentence case—for example, Przewalski's horse, Black bear. Where a vernacular name contains a proper name, that is also capitalised—for example, Small Indian civet. Common names are never italicised.
It is appropriate to create redirects to species (or subspecies) articles from any alternative capitalisation. For example, given an article Bald eagle, create a redirect to it from Bald Eagle. Many field guides capitalise, and most other sorts of writing do not, so we should account for both styles. There may be some rare instances where lower case and capitalised versions have different meanings; suitable links or disambiguation should then be used.
In article titles, the common name of a group of species, or an individual creature of indeterminate species, is not capitalised beyond the first word (except where a proper name occurs): Bottlenose dolphin, New World monkey, Rove beetle, Slime mold.
The Manual of Style, at MOS:LIFE,[a] calls for capitalisation of standardized breeds and cultivars (not breed groups/types, landraces, crossbreeds, hybrids, colour variants of breeds, etc.). When appended to the name of a standardised breed or cultivar as natural disambiguation, the species name is not capitalised: Siamese cat, Hass avocado. In rare cases of strong ambiguity, the species name is capitalised if it is a formal part of the breed name: American Quarter Horse.
Scientific names
editThe first part of a binomial species name, the genus, is capitalised. The second part, the species, is never capitalised (even when derived from a proper name): Ninox novaeseelandiae versus Ninox Novaeseelandiae. The same applies to the third part of a trinomial name, as in Canis lupus arctos.
Because scientific names at the level of genus or below are always italicised, per WP:Manual of Style/Text formatting § Italic face, when the article title is a genus or lower-ranked taxonomic name (e.g. species or subspecies), the page title should also be italicised.
There are three ways to accomplish this:
- Using one of the display templates of the automated taxobox system, such as
{{Automatic taxobox}}or{{Speciesbox}}, in most cases will automatically italicise the page title if it matches the taxon name and the taxon is genus-level or lower. {{Italic title}}added to a page will render its title in italic, except any word in parentheses, e.g.:
{{DISPLAYTITLE}}can be used for titles that require manual formatting, e.g.
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''Ninox'' cf. ''novaeseelandiae''}}
- result:
- Ninox cf. novaeseelandiae
Article text
editThis naming conventions guideline does not address prose usage.
Currency
editIf the scientific name of an animal has recently been changed (e.g. a species has been transferred into a different genus), and there is no reason to believe that the name change is contentious, use the new name regardless of usage in older reliable sources. It is not appropriate for us to retain archaic terminology while we wait for usage in older reliable sources to be swamped by usage in newer sources.