Template:Did you know nominations/Acer chaneyi


 * The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as |this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Miyagawa (talk) 23:41, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

Acer chaneyi

 * ... that Acer chaneyi has the longest fossil record for any Western North American maple?
 * Reviewed: Alcyonium coralloides
 * Comment: Reviewed Eunicella singularis for the Alcyonium coralloides nomination

Created by Kevmin (talk). Self nominated at 04:27, 26 December 2014 (UTC).


 * Symbol question.svg The article itself qualifies - it is only a day old at the time of nomination, is over 4000 characters, is adequately cited, and summarizes its source without plagiarizing it. There do not seem to be any neutrality issues to speak of. The article does not have an image, but as I found one in an old US Geological Survey publication (US Government publication, therefore available), I've added it to the article, and the nominator can use it for the DYK if they so choose. It can be found here: File:Acer_chaneyi_holotype.png. The self-nominator has provided a QPQ review. My only issue is with the hook, which is a bit bland, and somewhat misleading to the general reader. When I first read it, I took "longest" to mean "oldest", something the WP article doesn't clarify; it wasn't until reading the source article that I realized that there were far older species of Acer in the North American fossil record, and that A. chaneyi is simply the longest-extant species of maple in the fossil record of North America. (In fact, it might very well be the longest-extant species of maple in North America period, unless there are currently living species with a fossil record of 20 million years or more, but stating that would probably constitute original synthesis unless a source verifying that fact directly could be found.) The problem is that this fact in itself isn't that interesting to the general reader, at least, unless it can be spun in such a way that makes it a good hook. My advice would be to try an entirely different hook, perhaps concerning the fact that three different Latin binomial names were rejected before the name Acer chaneyi was settled on, told in an interesting and creative way. (I have some ideas on improvement of the article itself, but I'll post those on Talk:Acer_chaneyi later.) Peter G Werner (talk) 20:54, 2 January 2015 (UTC)
 * "Longest Fossil record" is how the span a taxon exists for is talked about in paleontology, while oldest is used for the first/most ancient. I dont think that the hook is bland myself, but here is a rewording:
 * Alt1 ... that with a 20 million year fossil record, Acer chaneyi has the longest fossil record of the Western North American maples? -- Kev  min  § 01:16, 3 January 2015 (UTC)
 * The tweak works a little better, though I think there's still ambiguity about "longest" vs "oldest". That's actually perfectly fine for the hook, but it should be clearer in the article. I might edit the article a bit later. Most of my concerns with the proposed DIY are minor issues and I think this article and hook qualify. Would appreciated a second opinion, though. Peter G Werner (talk) 20:22, 6 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Symbol redirect vote 4.svg - Any takers on that second opinion? PanydThe muffin is not subtle 14:37, 25 January 2015 (UTC)
 * Symbol voting keep.svg This article is new enough and long enough. It relies on a single reliable source, for which only the abstract is available to me. The article is neutral but I was unable to assess whether there were any close paraphrasing/copyright issues. The hook (either the original or ALT1 could be used) seems sufficiently interesting to me and I do not share Peter's qualms about use of the word "longest". Cwmhiraeth (talk) 06:58, 4 February 2015 (UTC)