User talk:Davidaboyd/sandbox

EKA Peer Edits
Hi David,

Your Wiki page looks great! I've split up my edits section by section to make it easier for you to follow the edits. We can definitely talk more in person if you have questions. Its sometimes difficult to articulate edits in writing. All in all the page looks great! The writing it clear, only small edits here and there, and some suggestions for where you could add a little more detail if you have it!

Some edits:

Intro part: - In the intro part I would take out the word "into" in the sentence They are freshwater.... throughout Eurasia and into northern Africa" - Do you know how many species are currently described? It might be cool to add that since you say how many genera and families there are - You might want to link the word 'benthic' with the wiki page

Description: - Why are the difficult to characterize with external traits? Are they just not morphologically distinct/different between groups? You could possibly state why they are difficult -Something that was confusing to me (may just be be and not need an edit) was for the decription of the size you have two fish in parentheses-- th eminiature eel loach and the imperial flower loach, are you using these fish as examples of those sizes? If so I wonder if you might want to have another example for the other end of the size class. Example: if the miniature eel is 23mm than what is an example of a 50cm fish? -What is the weight range for these fish? You have only 1 weight (3kg) but I imagine their weight has a range too -I would link Botiidae and Serpenticobitidae if there are pages for them

Taxonomy: --ENTOMOLOGY -Italicize Cobitis since it is a genus -Link Linnaeus to his Wiki page, and maybe write his full name out -Link Aristotle -Does the Cobitoidea name have latin meaning? Might be cool to specify if for example the word meant something like "small gilled fish" or something like that --CLASSIFICATION -Who is Hora?
 * I really like how you put their common names in bold like suckers and algae eaters!!**

--OSTEOLOGY -I dont think you need the commas after neurocranium in between unite Cobitoidea. I THINK you can just have the sentence with the comma after In particular. If you wanted a comma after 'unite Cobitoidea' you can probably keep that one but not the one before unite
 * Awesome phylogeny!

Habitat and Distribution: -I think that Northern Africa needs to be capitalized and Central (same goes for the intro part, capitalized Northern)

References: They all look good and properly formatted!

-I noticed some notes, i think from the wiki exercises that seem to be at the bottom of your sandbox. you might want to check to make sure you don't want that in there for the final upload!
 * Bottom of the page**

-Elena Ekarlsenayala (talk) 18:06, 17 February 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for looking this over, Elena! I've incorporated almost all of your suggestions. I hope the statements about the size range of the group, and the information about its taxonomic history, are more clear now. The number of species within the group was already included in the intro. We both suggested changes to capitalization of directional qualifiers (northern, central, etc.) on each others' articles, haha—I need to read more about it before this goes live. -Dave Davidaboyd (talk) 19:30, 23 March 2019 (UTC)

Comments from Emily
'''[This looks great! Nice job addressing peer feedback, and doing all the formatting (great inclusion of the phylogeny!). There is already an existing page on Cobitoidea... how are you planning to integrate your new page with that existing page? Also, any chance of including some pictures?? They sound cute!]'''

Loaches are fishes of the superfamily Cobitoidea. They are freshwater, benthic (bottom-dwelling) fishes found in rivers and creeks throughout Eurasia and northern Africa. Loaches are among the most diverse groups of fishes; the 1249 known species of Cobitoidea comprise about 107 genera divided among 9 families.

Description
Loaches display a wide variety of morphologies, making the group difficult to characterize as a whole using external traits. They range in adult length from the 23 mm (1 in) miniature eel-loach, Pangio longimanus, to the 50 cm (20 in) imperial flower loach, Leptobotia elongata, with the latter weighing up to 3 kg (6.6 lbs). Most loaches are small, narrow-bodied and elongate, with minute cycloid scales that are often embedded under the skin, patterns of brown-to-black pigment along the dorsal surface and sides, and three or more pairs of whisker-like barbels at the mouth. The type species of the family Cobitidae, Cobitis taenia, has a body shape and pigment pattern typical of Cobitoidea. However, many loaches are eel-like or conversely, quite stout-bodied; some balitorids have large, visible scales.

Loaches in the families Cobitidae, Botiidae, and Serpenticobitidae possess a bifid, protrusible spine below the eye, or in the case of the genus Acantopsis, between the eye and the tip of the snout.

Etymology
The name Cobitoidea comes from the type genus, Cobitis, described by Linnaeus in 1758. However, its origin predates modern zoological nomenclature and derives from a term used by Aristotle to refer to "small fishes that bury... like the gudgeon [can gudgeon be linked to an existing wiki page?]."

Classification
Cobitoidea is a superfamily within the order Cypriniformes, one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates. The order is commonly known as "minnows, carps, [did you mean to link those, rather than bold them? the bold seems out of place...]and relatives," and in addition to loaches it includes the suckers (Catostomidae) and aglae eaters (Gyrinocheilidae). Fishes of the latter family, which contains only a single genus Gyrinocheilus, are sometimes referred to as sucking loaches. It is uncertain if Gyrinocheilidae, or a clade containing both Gyrinocheilidae and Catostomidae, is sister to Cobitoidea.

History of classification
At the turn of the 20th century only two families of loaches had been described, and of these only Cobitidae was widely recognized by taxonomists. In the early 1900s, the American ichthyologist Fowler and the Indian ichthyologist Hora recognized what would come to be known as Balitoridae and Gastromyzontidae. Nemachelidae, and later Botiidae, were described as subfamilies of Cobitidae until their elevation to family status in 2002. Owing to shared morphological characteristics (see osteology, below) the relationship of the botiid and cobitid loaches was particularly difficult to resolve until the advent of molecular phylogenetics. Three of the nine families, containing only two or three species apiece, were recognized within the last ten years.

Phylogeny
Reproduction of molecular phylogeny of Cobitoidea from Bohlen & Šlechtová, 2009, with common names following Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes.

Osteology
Among loaches, the majority of known morphological synapomorphies, shared characters derived from a common ancestor [put this in parentheses rather than using commas to separate it], are osteological. In particular, modifications to the ethmoid and surrounding bones within the neurocranium unite Cobitoidea, in addition to certain lateral-line canal ossifications. An erectile suborbital spine, a modification of the lateral ethmoid, was formerly thought to represent a synapomorphy between Cobitidae and Botiidae. It is now considered a pleisiomorphy of Cobitoidea, a character shared by the common ancestor but lost in most loach lineages. The suborbital spine is also retained in the serpent loaches, Serpenticobitidae.

Habitat and distribution
Loaches are found in a wide variety of habitats throughout Europe, northern Africa, and central and Southeast Asia. Most families occur predominantly in rocky mountain streams at high elevations, but almost all have lowland representatives as well. Many species of Cobitidae burrow in the sand and arefound in riverbeds in broad, flat terrain. At least three families contain blind, troglomorphic species adapted to life in caves.

Relationship with humans
Some loaches are important food fish, especially in East and Southeast Asia where they are a common sight in markets.

Loaches are popular in the aquarium trade. Some of the most well-known examples are the clown loach (Chromobotia macracanthus), the kuhli loach (Pangio kuhlii), and the dwarf chain loach (Ambastaia sidthimunki). Botiid and gastromyzontid loaches also occasionally make their way into the trade.

Although loaches have a strictly Old World native distribution, the oriental weatherfish, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus, has been introduced in parts of Florida.