User talk:HCA

Happy HCA's Day!

HCA has been identified as an Awesome Wikipedian, and therefore, I've officially declared today as HCA's day! For your expertise in herpetological articles, enjoy being the Star of the day, HCA! Cheers, bibliomaniac15 01:49, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

The Fauna Barnstar

		The Fauna Barnstar
		For your excellent work on Herpetology-related articles. The High Fin Sperm Whale 20:15, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

Awesome, thanks!

User:Sharry99

I saw your report at WP:AIV. I have created Category:Suspected Wikipedia sockpuppets of Sharry99. ‎ If you are confident of the existence of other socks of this editor that are already blocked, you could add them to the category, per instructions at the top of the page. This is handy for record-keeping, and can form part of the evidence in future sock cases. EdJohnston (talk) 14:20, 8 July 2010 (UTC)

WP Amphibians and Reptiles in the Signpost

The WikiProject Report would like to focus on WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles for a Signpost article. This is an excellent opportunity to draw attention to your efforts and attract new members to the project. Would you be willing to participate in an interview? If so, here are the questions for the interview. Just add your response below each question and feel free to skip any questions that you don't feel comfortable answering. Multiple editors will have an opportunity to respond to the interview questions, so be sure to sign your answers. If you know anyone else who would like to participate in the interview, please share this with them. Have a great day. -Mabeenot (talk) 23:11, 15 February 2012 (UTC)

Science lovers wanted!

Science lovers wanted!

Hi! I'm serving as the wikipedian-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution Archives until June! One of my goals as resident, is to work with Wikipedians and staff to improve content on Wikipedia about people who have collections held in the Archives - most of these are scientists who held roles within the Smithsonian and/or federal government. I thought you might like to participate since you are interested in the sciences! Sign up to participate here and dive into articles needing expansion and creation on our to-do list. Feel free to make a request for images or materials at the request page, and of course, if you share your successes at the outcomes page you will receive the SIA barnstar! Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to your participation! Sarah (talk) 19:32, 16 April 2012 (UTC)

Your expertise requested about Collodictyon

Hi this article is really in trouble, but with huge interest in terms of pageviews, apparently a single-celled creature which propels itself (apparently) with four flagella. Wondering if you might point us to better sources. It was in the news recently with a (possibly hyped?) story about how it is one of Earth's oldest living organisms, possibly an ancestor to humans and evolutionary clue, and lived only in a lake in Norway (which we originally thought was Lake As but we think we've got the lake down now via redirect). If you have free time to help we'd be grateful, thanx.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 11:58, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Sorry to disappoint, but I'm pretty clueless about protozoans. I'd likely be more hinderance than help. HCA (talk) 13:23, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks anyway. You are most knowledgeable about muscles and such and I thought the flagella might come under your area of expertise. Do you know anybody here at Wikipedia who might help?--Tomwsulcer (talk) 13:35, 30 April 2012 (UTC)

Might need your input here

I reported an ip for making a BLP, on WP:ANI , he mentions your name as one of two people that have reverted him | Check here for it, it's labeled as "Legal Threat or Now" . Perhaps you can shed more light on it. Looks like it may be Australia's "Snake Man " himself based on his edits

"....We are all Kosh...."  <-Babylon-5-> 17:42, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, that's almost assuredly him. He has a reputation for roving the net to both promote his ideas and threaten legal action against those disagreeing with him or criticizing him. He's edited WP many, many times before, mostly either his own WP page (either to sanitize it or engage in promotion) or a few snake taxa he's "published" on (his taxonomy is legendarily awful, to the point that Nature itself identified him by name as an example of why amateur taxonomists are bad for science). His most recent "dispute" (which resulted in vandalism of my talk page a few hours ago) concerns the genus names for the white-lipped and reticulated pythons, which he claims to have re-named (the revisions have not been accepted by any workers in the field). Contrary to his wishes, WP:Amphibians and Reptiles adopted a universal policy of using the (relatively slow and conservative) ITIS database for snake taxonomy, in order to prevent us from having to move pages and redirect links every time a paper is published. While Hoser's antics have certainly not endeared him to me, my reversion of his most recent edits is purely a policy matter. HCA (talk) 18:00, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Also, I feel compelled to ask "Who are you?"  ;) HCA (talk) 18:03, 24 July 2012 (UTC)

Edit: Convergent evolution

I don't think you understood my edit here:[1] I didn't add those terms; instead, what I did was move that paragraph from below in order to form a more logical narrative flow. If you believe "Neither term is used correctly", then that paragraph should be deleted. Your reversion here:[2] simply moved it back (and removed link: evolutionary relay). ~Eric F 74.60.29.141 (talk) 08:59, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Ah, my bad, I guess I didn't look thoroughly enough. Anyhow, I've edited it again to correct the parallel evolution example and remove the "evolutionary relay" bit, since the term seems to be almost never used and apparently means something quite different. HCA (talk) 11:23, 23 October 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for clarifying. ~E 74.60.29.141 (talk) 20:25, 25 October 2012 (UTC)

Good edit!

Hi, thanks for resolving problems with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_testing#Euthanasia. David F (talk) 23:27, 11 December 2012 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Tegu

You deleted this out-of-process some time back. I'm not utterly convinced that it doesn't meet notability requirements, so I'm putting it through AFD. You are of course welcome to comment. Mangoe (talk) 16:33, 7 January 2013 (UTC)

Reptile taxonomy

I'm somewhat puzzled by this and other reptile reverts where you've used a similar argument (only speaking about the taxonomy; not other things you reverted there). Looking at WP:AAR#Taxonomy, it is clear that a specific source only has been chosen for higher level taxonomy (the infrequently updated and by now highly out-of-date ITIS). At lower levels none has been chosen. That leads to one of the core wikipedia policies, WP:NPOV (e.g., subsections "Good research" and "Balance"). We now have clear evidence that Rhacodactylus sensu lato is problematic, resulting in the validation of Correlophus. Publications presenting comparable evidence for the opposite view (all in Rhacodactylus) are lacking. I note that the lead author of the 2012 paper is Bauer, the top authority on this group, and that the single most complete online database (reptile-database.org) has followed the split too. The recently described C. belepensis would present an additional problem if sticking with one genus. We'd have to disregard it entirely; adding it as the only species of Correlophus would be WP:OR (no one has suggested the genus is monotypic) and adding it as R. belepensis would also be WP:OR (no authority has placed it in Rhacodactylus).
In summary, I'm struggling to find any good argument for keeping the two genera together. While user:Chevyrumble55 certainly should have provided a source when he made the changes, based on your edit summary it appears you were aware of the source, but disregarded it. However, beware that Chevyrumble55 made a spelling mistake: Corellophus instead of the correct Correlophus. If you insist on preserving the outdated taxonomy, please note that Chevyrumble55 removed the two Correlophus (chahoua+ciliatus) from the species list in Rhacodactylus, and modified Diplodactylinae too. I'll leave possible edits dealing with these taxonomic issues to you and other editors. Regards, 212.10.95.175 (talk) 19:30, 18 January 2013 (UTC)

thanks for looking over my shoulder

I'm no expert on reptiles. I'm trying to improve some of the articles, and it helps to have someone make sure I don't make a bad edit. Please check out my revision. Leadwind (talk) 23:03, 2 March 2013 (UTC)

Talkback

Hello, HCA. You have new messages at Talk:Kinesiology#Baron_Nils_Posse.
Message added SPhilbrick(Talk) 14:06, 22 March 2013 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Thanks for caring about the Burmese Python article

Thank you for your love of snakes and substantial authorship of the Burmese Python article.

Could you find it in your heart to allow the article to mention that Burmese pythons are snakes that grow quickly to large size, and have proven capable of attacking and seriously injuring or killing infants, children, and adult humans (including experienced snake handlers) as ably detailed by the Humane Society report, Humane Society. "Constrictor Snake Attacks" (PDF).?

This factual information will not help sell any snakes, but it is salient to unsophisticated potential snake buyers who rely on Wikipedia for useful information. Its omission leaves the article reading like sales talk for buying one of these wild animals, which the article describes as attractive and popular.

The HSUS is an advocacy group, one that has the explicit goal of ending all exotic pet ownership, from Burmese pythons to betta fish. Extremist animal-rights organizations like the HSUS are not a reliable source, and cannot be used on WP.

Furthermore, the excessive focus on their dangers is out of place - WP is not here as a pet guide, either for or against any species. You don't see any such notes on the pages for wolves or ocelots or sharks, so it doesn't belong with Burmese pythons. HCA (talk) 19:05, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

To underscore the rarity of Burmese pythons over 5 metres, might the Wikipedia article mention this 2013 find

To underscore the rarity of lengths over 5 metres, might Wikipedia's Burmese python article mention this 2013 find, which by subtraction reveals that the previous record in Florida was less than 17 feet long, and thus not much in excess of 5 metres / 16.4 feet, if at all?

... individual specimens over 5 metres (16.4 feet) are rarely encountered. For example, an 18-foot long 128 pound Burmese python found in the wild in Florida in 2013 besting the previous record by more than a foot.

Something like this would be an acceptable addition, yes. Even better would be a source for average or median wild size; the skin trade's records may actually be the best bet for that. HCA (talk) 19:06, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

* Southern limit of the distribution of the green anaconda

Good evening:

Please allow me to share an article with you. Maybe you will find it interesting:

http://www.naturapop.com/home/southern-limit-of-the-distribution-of-the-green-anaconda