Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life 

First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have got together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in these articles. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!

Contents

Scope and descendant projects

This WikiProject aims primarily to represent the taxonomy and relationships of living organisms, as well as their extinct relatives, in a tree structure. Since there are millions of species, not all will be included, but we aim to handle as many as information, time, and interest permit.

This WikiProject descends from WikiProject Biology. Various other WikiProjects may be based on it to better treat specific groups. Currently there are:

Article titles

Main policy Wikipedia:Naming Conventions

In cases where there is a formal common name (e.g. birds), or when common names are well-known and reasonably unique (e.g. "Cuvier's dwarf caiman"), they should be used for article titles; unambiguous and unique common names are rare in plant articles - be careful. Scientific names should be used otherwise.

See Wikipedia:Naming conventions (flora) for article titles for plant names and Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna) for article titles for animal names.

Note the following guidelines in using scientific names:

In cases where a group only contains a single subgroup, the two should not be separated (unless the higher-ranked group has had multiple circumscriptions, and an article is written to cover them all). If there is no common name, the article should generally go under the scientific name that is most often used when discussing the group, or under the scientific name of lowest rank if there is no clear preference. However, for a genus that contains a single species, the genus name should be used since it is included in the binomial. For instance the order Amphionidacea, which has the single species Amphionides reynaudii, is discussed at Amphionides.

Not all species need have separate articles. The simplest (and probably best) rule is to have no rule: if you have the time and energy to write up some particularly obscure subspecies that most people have never even heard of, go for it! As a general guideline, though, it's best to combine separate species into a single entry whenever it seems likely that there won't be enough text to make more than a short, unsatisfying stub otherwise. If the entry grows large enough to deserve splitting, that can always be done later.

A useful heuristic is to create articles in a "downwards" order, that is, family articles first, then genus, then species. If you find that information is getting thin, or the family/genus is really small, just leave the species info inline in the family or genus article, don't try to force it down any further.

Common name capitalization

Many of the WikiProjects listed above have defined standards for the capitalization of common names, which should be used when discussing the groups they focus on. There is currently no common standard, so no particular system should be enforced overall.

Taxoboxes

Example taxobox
Cetaceans
Humpback Whale breaching
Humpback Whale breaching
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Brisson, 1762
Suborders

Mysticeti
Odontoceti

The full taxobox guide is located at Wikipedia:Taxobox usage.

Detailed taxonomic information, including notes on how taxa are defined and how they vary between different systems, belongs in the article proper. Where possible, however, a standard table will be provided to allow easier navigation between related groups and quick identification of what sort of organisms are being discussed. These are called taxoboxes. A typical taxobox is shown at right (it belongs on the top right of the page Cetacea).

There are three main sections to the taxobox:

Some items that are often included, but are not (necessarily) standardized, include:

Position: The taxobox generally belongs at the top right corner of the article, unless it has been decided otherwise on the relevant talk page - for instance, if the article is not primarily about the biological group.

For cultivars — cultivated varieties of plants — don't use a taxobox; instead use a cultivar infobox as described at Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Cultivar infobox.

For breeds of animals, don't use a taxobox; instead use the appropriate breed template; see for example Wikipedia:WikiProject Dog breeds and Wikipedia:WikiProject Horse breeds.

Categories

Major groups should be given their own categories. When possible, these should use the common name in the plural. In general, only articles about major subgroups should be added, and more specific articles should be included in subcategories. However, when there are only a few articles about members of the group, they can all go directly into the main category. Use your judgement on when to split, aiming for an approximate category size of 10-50 articles.

Note that in addition to taxa, categories may also contain informal subgroups. For instance Category:Primates may include an article or subcategory for monkeys, although they are not treated as a formal group. They may also include some other articles that pertain specifically to members of the group, although they are not about them.

Categories related to the biota of a region should should be based on the common grouping of that region used by zoological, botanical, mycological etc. publications. For example, if it is common to separate a region based on political boundaries (as in parts of Europe), categories should be separated by countries. If it is common to separate regions based on geographic features (such as New Guinea), categories should be separated by geographic region.

Taxonomic resources

The taxonomy of many groups is in a state of flux, and it is not always possible to find a single satisfactory classification, and we would be doing a great disservice by pretending otherwise. The best would be to try and find out what the current consensus is, if there is one, and make notes on variant systems. In this, the following resources may be helpful:

General taxonomy

Animals

Plants

Likewise, the following sites can help find taxonomic authors and abbreviations:

Fungi

Protists and Prokaryotes

Viruses

Other resources

Photos

Requested photographs

If you wish to have a photo uploaded please add {{Reqphoto|animals}} on the talk page of the article. Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of animals lists these requests - if you can upload a photograph of any of these it would be appreciated.

Related WikiProjects

Participants

Sample articles

A number of articles under this WikiProject and its descendants have been recognized for their excellence by the Wikipedia community as featured articles or featured lists, and may serve as good models. The articles are sorted by WikiProject:

To do

New Articles

To browse Tree of Life subjects that require articles, see the Requested articles sub-page for biology. If adding to the list of requests, make sure to include scientific names, as it will make it easier for others to track down information. One-sentence stubs are discouraged: try to create a worthwhile start class article, with a taxobox, and sources properly cited. When adding weblinks, look for standard references first, such as the IUCN and its sub-commissions.

Specific request lists include:

Cleanup

Please add {{ToLCleanup}} to the talk page of ToL articles in need of cleanup. In addition to adding some text indicating the article needs some work, it will also add the article to Category:Wikipedia cleanup and Category:Tree of Life cleanup.

Please add {{missing-taxobox}} to the talk page of articles that need taxonomic information.

Articles needing taxoboxes

Articles needing attention


Articles needing attention

Other projects

Main list of WikiProjects