Talk:Cophyla

Taxonomic inconsistency and linkages
Since 2016 there has been a debate over whether Platypelis should be a synonym of Cophyla. The group of authors arguing for the synonymy of the two genera run the Amphibian Species of the World database, and have not removed Platypelis from synonymy of Cophyla despite the fact that all work since 2016 has supported the monophyly of these two genera, and researchers working on the taxonomy of these frogs continue to use Platypelis. AmphibiaWeb also still considers the two genera distinct.

This is a place where the WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles may need to follow AmphibiaWeb over the ASW database, as the ASW team have a conflict of interest. HOWEVER! I myself also have a COI, declared above, as I am one of the researchers working on these frogs and am directly involved in this debate. It will be necessary for an impartial third party, ideally more than one, to read both sides of the debate and decide what course of action to take.

Whatever decision is reached, currently the species that are generally considered as Platypelis are still under that genus name on Wikipedia (e.g. Platypelis grandis, Platypelis tsaratananaensis, and either need to be migrated to Cophyla pages, or the Platypelis page needs to be reinstated. Dr Mark D. Scherz 15:48, 11 June 2020 (UTC)