Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2024 July 25

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July 25

Vicarization

Greetings! I was reading the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fauna_of_Puerto_Rico article and came across the above word, it is blue-linked to "Speciation" but I cannot find that word on the speciation article. I couldn't find a definition in several dictionaries i checked either...Do you know what this word means? could it be made more clear in the article?140.147.160.225 (talk) 18:47, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

The link should be to Allopatric speciation. To my ignorant mind it appears that the correct word is "vicariance", not "vicarization". --Wrongfilter (talk) 19:06, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Yes. VICARIANCE n. (biology) The separation of a group of organisms by a geographic barrier, resulting in differentiation of the original group into new varieties or species [1] Philvoids (talk) 12:07, 26 July 2024 (UTC)

thanks so much! I've updated the article 140.147.160.225 (talk) 18:42, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

Fels-Naptha

At Talk:Fels-Naptha I raised the issue that the article makes that unsourced claim that "Fels-Naptha once contained naphtha, a skin and eye irritant", but I was unable to find any source showing that Fels-Naptha (note the single "h") soap used to have Naphtha (note the two "h"s) in it, when it was removed, or why it was removed. This may be an urban myth. Can anyone find a source for those claims? --Guy Macon Alternate Account (talk) 19:52, 25 July 2024 (UTC)

Following up links in the references of that article and of Naphtha leads to several sources that state naphtha was dropped from the ingredients, at least one saying this was due to fears it might be carcinogenic. I don't know if any of those sources count as 'Reliable', and none give their sources. This seems unsurprising given the degree to which naphtha was and is used in many products and processes.

'Naptha' seems merely to be a common variant spelling, particularly in product names, presumably because the string -phth- is uncommon in English and likely to be mispronounced and misread by non-chemists. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 94.2.67.235 (talk) 20:49, 28 July 2024 (UTC)