Wikipedia:WikiProject Animals/Draft capitalization guidelines

Please feel free to modify anything on this page

Purpose of this draft proposal:
 * To clarify and confirm existing uncontroversial guidelines and conventions, and present them in a "quick-reference" table format, for inclusion into the guidelines for the capitalization of common names of species in order to:
 * a) help prevent multiple page moves of existing articles;
 * b) help ensure new articles are properly named when created


 * To possibly agree upon new conventions currently unresolved.

Proposed additions/clarifications to guidelines:


 * Common names of animal species are written either in title case or sentence case depending upon the taxonomic group (shown below).
 * In title case, the first letter of every important word is capitalized (e.g., Grey Currawong, Duke of Burgundy), except for words that follow a hyphen (e.g., Brown-headed Spider Monkey).
 * In sentence case, no capital letters are used (e.g., brown bear, ray-finned shark), except for proper names (e.g., North American beaver, Roosevelt's elk).


 * Names of higher categories of animals are always written in sentence case (e.g., kangaroo rat, river martin).


 * Individual articles should be consistent in using either title or sentence case for common names. If an article on an animal species uses title-case title, all species mentioned in the text should have their name in title case.