Talk:Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish

Untitled
how are they endangered!

Interesting facts
Aren't most of these "interesting facts" true of any crayfish? If so, their place is not in this specific article. Palpalpalpal 17:22, 27 April 2007 (UTC)


 * The following line:

Their blood is clear, turning blue on contact with oxygen
 * seems hardly believable. After all, doesn't the blood of crayfishes (and other crustaceans) carry oxygen in it? Therefore, it would be in contact with oxygen all of the time. Or, possibly, it turns blue when it comes in contact with another gas/substance in the air/water. --Crustaceanguy (talk) 13:00, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Article title
This animal is referred to as The Tasmanian giant freshwater lobster in all of the references used here and in all the literature that I have seen that uses common names. I have been involved in freshwater conservation for about 20 years and I have always known this species by that name and I have never heard it referred to as a crayfish except when being referred to collectively together with other Australian freshwater crayfish. It would seem to me that unless there are valid objections I will seek to have the article moved to ...lobster. - Nick Thorne  talk  07:26, 10 January 2013 (UTC)

Requested move
No consensus to move. (Though, if the two participants can agree on a name, go ahead and move it!) --regentspark (comment) 13:47, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

Tasmanian giant freshwater crayfish → Tasmanian giant freshwater lobster – This animal is usually referred to ...lobster rather than ...crayfish. As a redirect currently exists at the target name, reuqest this article be moved over the top of the redirect and this title become a redirect. A sample of typical references supporting the proposed name include:

Nick Thorne talk  09:05, 21 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Weak oppose The animal is a member of Parastacidae, a crayfish family. Comparing the names (-wikipedia) in Google, crayfish is more common in a general search (88,800 to 1860) and Books (99 to 48). However, Library of Congress Subject Headings uses "Astacopsis gouldi" (which isn't necessarily a bad idea) with a see-reference from "Tasmanian giant freshwater lobster" and no mention of crayfish. And the lobster form wins out in Google Scholar 38 to 11. The evidence tilts against the move, so I'm comfortable with the status quo. --BDD (talk) 22:30, 22 January 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the input. No question that this animal is a member of the crayfish family as you quite rightly say. However, a family name is, by definition, a collective name and one I agree would always apply when speaking about the species collectively with other members of the group.  However, making an exception for this species' name is, in my opinion, not unreasonable given that it is so much bigger than any other species in the group.  I suspect that the name lobster became associated with this species specifically because of its size, but of course that is OR.  My association with the species is indirect and mostly because of my association with scientists who work in freshwater ecology and the name crayfish struck me as unusual for this species.  In the end, this is not a die in the ditch issue and I will go with the consensus here.  However, I think that in biological articles Wikipedia gains credibility by being seen to be speaking with an educated voice, which would suggest giving preference to the scholarly results over the popular ones. -  Nick Thorne  talk  07:06, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
 * I was thinking about the size as well. It seems that it is considered a "giant" crayfish, and thus likely to be considered a lobster. But is it particularly gigantic for a lobster? Probably not. In case of confusion, I'm happy to prefer a scholarly name, but in that case I wonder if Astacopsis gouldi might not be the best choice. WP:NCFAUNA suggests appealing to "international zoological nomenclature authorities" before doing that. --BDD (talk) 16:14, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Actually these animals have been recorded at over 5 kg (11 lb) and 80 cm (31 in) long, which is pretty large for any lobster. - Nick Thorne  talk  21:38, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

About the specific name - gouldi
I have removed the following statement from the intro "The specific epithet gouldi commemorates the naturalist John Gould." because no citation was provided for this claim and a search for more details only brings up websites which reference back to this Wikipedia page. Instead, I found an ABC article by the Tasmanian Museum and Art gallery which suggests the specific name is actually assigned in honor of William Buelow Gould in 1845.

Regards, NeoGeneric   💬  11:15, 26 September 2016 (UTC)

Photograph of the actual animal?
Two generic River pictures. A watercolor sketch that is more artistic than scientific. And a massive oversized sculpture. Yet no images of the actual animal. Seems like we could use one for the article. oknazevad (talk) 02:17, 21 August 2022 (UTC)