User:ToedToad/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an Article Assignment

Which article are you evaluating?
Jaw

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article to evaluate because it is an article about a very large topic that I have tried to reference in the past. However, the article is quite sparse in information and references considering that it is about such an important topic (level 4 importance - C Class article). It was mentioned in class that we could evaluate an article that did not apply to the course material, I really hope that was true.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section

The first sentence of the article serves its purpose as an introductory sentence that describes the topic, however there are grammatical errors ("structures" instead of "structure") and the vocabulary that is used may be too technical for a reader who is unfamiliar with anatomical terms. The lead section does not include a description of the articles major sections. The lead section does not include any information that is not present in the article. The lead section is too concise and could use some more information. For example, a better less scientific definition of jaws and an explanation between jaws and jaw-like structures.

Content

What content is in this very brief article is mostly relevant to the topic. The sections that are present all contain necessary information, however the topics are too broad (e.g Amphibians, reptiles and birds), and could all be expanded upon. They section on arthropod mandibles is out of place as there already exists an article for this topic. The content is not wholly out of date, however most of the article is not backed up by sources, and of the 5 sources that are included they range from 1975 to 2010. These would be considered older sources, and so newer ones should be added. There is quite a bit of information that is missing from this article. The article consists of 3 main sections and 4 sub sections, organized into taxonomic groups. While this is good for showing the diversity of jaw structures throughout the animal kingdom, there is no content on jaw structure and function that is homologous between all jawed vertebrates. This article does not deal with any of Wikipedia's equity gaps nor does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics.

Tone and Balance

This article is written from a mostly neutral point of view. Only one hypothesis is presented for the origin of jaws in vertebrates, and there is no discussion of alternative or older hypotheses. The article mentions an alternative hypothesis to the original advantage of jaws, however neither hypothesis is discussed in enough detail. The article does not attempt to convince the reader of any one position, and no fringe viewpoints are presented.

Sources and References

This article does not have enough citations of the information provided. The references provided do not begin to cover the plethora of papers on the topic of jaw mechanics, physiology, evolution, development, etc. There are only 5 sources total and they are only attributed to one sentence of information each. All of the links to the refences work, and 2/5 citations are for reputable books, and 2/5 are of primary literature papers, this means the majority of the ew citations are at least good sources. The other citation is short article about a recent research paper published, so while it is not a bad source, the original paper should be cited (Anderson & Westneat, 2006). The original publication was actually quite hard to find as the article written about it includes an incorrect and incomplete date for when this paper was published in the The royal society's biology letters. The sources are out of date, as the most recent one is from 2010. The sources come from a somewhat diverse spectrum of authors, but where possible some sources should be added from historically marginalized individuals.

Images and Media

The article includes 4 images that are technically related to the article but do not enhance the information being explained in any meaningful way. Instead of a diagram of the moray eel jaw structure this article would benefit from an anatomical diagram of a basal bony fish jaw structure, as this would give the readers a good understanding of the basis for which the more complex and derived jaws in stem species originate from. All of the images have good figure captions and adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations. The images could be laid out in a more appealing way and in a manner that correlated with the information in each sections. For example the image of the human lower jaw should be move to be in the section about mammals.

Talk Page Discussion

This article is considered a level 4 article, which means it is considered an essential article, however this article is only rated C-class. This article is also part of 2 wikiprojects: Gross anatomy and animal anatomy, both of which have high importance.

Overall Impressions

This article is poorly developed. While this article, unlike other poorly developed articles, has content, it is not meaningful content. This is a very important topic, and from what is said in the article thus far it is not giving the important information. Things that are missing from this article include, a section on just the evolutionary advantage jaws provided for vertebrates, a section just on physiology, a section on evolutionary history. These are just some of the crucial parts of this article that are missing. The one strength of this article is that they took a comparative approach to looking at the jaw, and highlighted its diversity across the animal kingdom.

Suggested Reference to Add

Anderson, P. S., & Westneat, M. W. (2006). Feeding mechanics and bite force modelling of the skull of Dunkleosteus terrelli, an ancient APEX predator. Biology Letters, 3(1), 77-80. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2006.0569