Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/List of reptiles of Michigan/archive1

List of reptiles of Michigan

Featured list candidates/List of reptiles of Michigan/archive1

Nominator(s): Dana boomer (talk) 18:27, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

As a sister nomination to the recently passed List of amphibians of Michigan...I present the state's reptiles! The formatting for this list is based on that of the amphibian list, and I have incorporated comments and improvements made to that list during the FLC into this one as well, so hopefully it is coming better prepared! I look forward to seeing your comments, and thank you in advance, Dana boomer (talk) 18:27, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved comments from Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:36, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

:*Comment: - I noticed that many of these have no citations for the description, nor for the fact that they are found in Michigan. Crisco 1492 (talk) 10:35, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

If there is no specific ref, they are referenced to the general ref - a method which was accepted in the FLC I mentioned above. Dana boomer (talk) 11:21, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Alright, sounds good. I'll give prose a look. Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:11, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Prose comments from Crisco 1492:

"glacially-derived landforms" - Do we not have an article on glacial terraforming or the terraforming effects of glaciers? That may be a better target.

I haven't been able to find a link of this sort...I agree that it would make a much better target, but I'd rather link to straight glacier than a redlinked glacial terraforming... Dana boomer (talk) 19:27, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

"and deciduous hardwoods are the dominant tree species, with some natural prairies and savannas." - You go from talking about soil to talking about plants in the same sentence. Perhaps split? Also, it reads like hardwoods are a single species. Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:24, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Split into two sentences. And I think it reads correctly in the plural, since species is both singular and plural. I think the correct singular (if "deciduous hardwood" was a specific species) would be "and deciduous hardwood is the dominant tree species". Dana boomer (talk) 19:27, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Image comments from Crisco 1492

Note that this isn't going to be a full image review; one is still needed. I selected five randomly

File:Eastern Brown Snake.jpg - I'm rather doubtful that this is an original work, due to the small size and lack of metadata.

I couldn't find anywhere that it was copyvio'd from, but I replaced the photo anyways. Dana boomer (talk) 19:27, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Image for Diadophis punctatus edwardsii could use cropping Crisco 1492 (talk) 14:24, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'm really horrible at cropping pictures, and I don't have the software to do it correctly, so if someone else wants to do this I won't have a problem with it but I most likely won't be doing it myself :) Dana boomer (talk) 19:27, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the review, Crisco - much appreciated! Dana boomer (talk) 19:27, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Tentative support pending full image spotcheck. Crisco 1492 (talk) 23:36, 4 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Nice article!

Some comments, FWIW. Not meant to hold up your star sticker (will not vote or check back). Just for you to consider when working on the thing.

1. A map showing Michigan blown up would be helpful. If you are pushed for space, could put the USA one into a cutout of that state map. Fallschirmjaeger can do this for you. Maybe also consider showing the location of Detroit and naming the lakes for geography ignorant Eurowikians to have some reference of something they have heard of. And the four regions. (you can add some note or caveat if someone gets persnickety about OR in assigning the boundaries).

2. Don't think numbering the parts of the state is helpful in the text, as we never use the numbers later (and as south lower and east upper are more explanatory).

3. Add a comment in table (or article text) that the RES is non-native.

4. It would be interesting to add a column for geographical occurrence (both interesting content, and also plays well off the geography discussion above). The DNR site has some good content here. for instance, we can see that this snake is state-wide. If you need more table space, the first two columns can be tweaked to be smaller (get RexxS or some table expert to do it for you).

5. I like the break by reptile type.

6. Most of Wiki (and the Reptile Wikiproject), as well as the New York Times and Britanica use lower case for Aanimal names. For a birder article, I would do the upper case, but only to appease the Wikiproject Birds...as the New York Times still says bald eagle not Bald Eagle.)

7. Text is pleasant to read.

8. Subject is notable and interesting to assemble into a list. I think schoolchildren will appreciate and enjoy it.

9. I'm not sure that the frost free burrow explanation is 100% correct. I know picta has some degree of being able to withstand freezing temps. Probably serpentina also. Also, probably fair to note that freezes still kill many reptiles, especially if near their habitat limit (as is probable for many of them being in Michigan). (you would have to research this and add cites).

10. You are using the "notes" column almost entirely for endangered status. Advise to rename the column title then.

11. I advise writing for donations of pics for the animals that have no image. Start with DNR although you may need multiple requests. (I know this is work, but it would make this article prettier and be a real contribution for the individual animal articles.)

12. Wikilink "state reptile" (pimping another FL).

13. org tweak: I would talk about occurrence before threatened status (the general/natural before the specialized/legal). So, keep the first sentence the same, but then join the second para right after it. Move the remainder of the first para down to become the last para. Keep the state reptile comment in that para, but put some parens (not threatened) to make it clear, given the rest of that para's content.

14. On the talk page, add a banner for Wikiproject reptiles.

15. Description column is good content.

16. Categories, refs and the general ref (link to DNR) are all good.

76.79.11.122 (talk) 22:10, 5 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]