Wikipedia:WikiProject Cetaceans

This WikiProject is about cetaceans - that's whales, dolphins and porpoises to you and me. The aim of the project is to write a good description of every known cetacean species out there - all 90 of them, one of which is possibly extinct.


 * List of cetaceans
 * Category:Cetaceans
 * Parent projects: WikiProject Mammals & WikiProject Marine life

Things to be done
 [ edit]· [ history]· [ watch]· [ purge]
 * /Assessment/
 * /Collaboration/ &mdash; Collaborations were selected monthly from September 2006 until January 2007, with irregular activity thereafter until the last selection in April 2008, since which time it has been inactive.
 * Change capitalisation of common names to sentence case. See Capitalisation of common names below. (Discuss)

Members
To join this WikiProject, edit this section and add  * ~  and any comments to the following list of members in alphabetical order by username. Place User WPCETA on your user page to display the following userbox:

This template will add your user page to:
 * Category:WikiProject Cetaceans participants


 * - Whale evolution
 * – Everything
 * - Killer Whales
 * - Humpback whale and Walrus
 * - Long-finned Pilot Whale
 * - Overhauling the Cetacea page and then get to work on the beaked whales
 * - Will be trying to add new articles and update existing ones, mostly on extinct cetaceans. Also active in WP:PALEO.
 * - Killer Whales
 * - Humpback whale and Walrus
 * - Long-finned Pilot Whale
 * - Overhauling the Cetacea page and then get to work on the beaked whales
 * - Will be trying to add new articles and update existing ones, mostly on extinct cetaceans. Also active in WP:PALEO.
 * - Humpback whale and Walrus
 * - Long-finned Pilot Whale
 * - Overhauling the Cetacea page and then get to work on the beaked whales
 * - Will be trying to add new articles and update existing ones, mostly on extinct cetaceans. Also active in WP:PALEO.
 * - Overhauling the Cetacea page and then get to work on the beaked whales
 * - Will be trying to add new articles and update existing ones, mostly on extinct cetaceans. Also active in WP:PALEO.

Inactive

 * - Antarctic fur and Weddell seals
 * - Want to help anywhere I can.
 * - Edited Beluga page, which is rather fitting
 * Death Eater Dan #( Muahaha ) Created the new article box on the portal main page
 * - (just the river dolphins, really)
 * - Harbour porpoise and White-beaked dolphin
 * - Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins & Hawaiian Monk Seals
 * (István)
 * - Everything about prehistoric
 * - Order:Sirenia
 * - Pygmy Sperm Whale
 * - (Cetaceans around Canada)
 * - Pontoporia blainvillei
 * - North Pacific Right Whale
 * - (mysticetes and ziphiids)
 * - Here to help
 * (Pete)
 * - Here and there
 * - Sperm Whale
 * - Adding photographs (example Harbour Porpoise vs Bottlenose Dolphin)
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - Harbour porpoise and White-beaked dolphin
 * - Hawaiian Spinner Dolphins & Hawaiian Monk Seals
 * (István)
 * - Everything about prehistoric
 * - Order:Sirenia
 * - Pygmy Sperm Whale
 * - (Cetaceans around Canada)
 * - Pontoporia blainvillei
 * - North Pacific Right Whale
 * - (mysticetes and ziphiids)
 * - Here to help
 * (Pete)
 * - Here and there
 * - Sperm Whale
 * - Adding photographs (example Harbour Porpoise vs Bottlenose Dolphin)
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - (mysticetes and ziphiids)
 * - Here to help
 * (Pete)
 * - Here and there
 * - Sperm Whale
 * - Adding photographs (example Harbour Porpoise vs Bottlenose Dolphin)
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - Here and there
 * - Sperm Whale
 * - Adding photographs (example Harbour Porpoise vs Bottlenose Dolphin)
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - Adding photographs (example Harbour Porpoise vs Bottlenose Dolphin)
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - Melon-headed whale
 * - Melon-headed whale

Featured Articles (8)

 * Baleen whale
 * South Asian river dolphin ...
 * South Asian river dolphin ...
 * South Asian river dolphin ...
 * South Asian river dolphin ...
 * South Asian river dolphin ...
 * South Asian river dolphin ...
 * South Asian river dolphin ...

Former Featured Articles (4)

 * Featured article star - cross.svg Fin whale
 * Featured article star - cross.svg Sei whale
 * Featured article star - cross.svg Sperm whale
 * Featured article star - cross.svg Whale sound

Good Articles (29)

 * [[Image:Symbol support vote.svg|15px]]
 * Bottlenose dolphin
 * Dolphin drive hunting
 * Dolphinarium
 * Dusky dolphin
 * Narwhal
 * Pilot whale
 * Whale
 * River dolphin
 * Transitional fossil ...

Featured Lists (1)

 * [[Image:Featured article star.svg|15px]] List of cetaceans

State of articles

 * Popular pages of WikiProject Cetaceans
 * Akex's Tools

Scope of articles
Articles on almost every species have been started. Most species have their own article with the exception of mesoplodont whales (too little information known for separate articles) and humpback dolphins (the lack of consensus from the taxonomists makes difficult to know what species to choose). Better to do at the genus level to avoid passing judgment.

Capitalisation of common names
Common names of cetaceans are written in sentence case. That is, the names are not capitalised except for the first word of a sentence and any proper names that are part of the common name. An example of the general use is bowhead whale. Examples of the inclusion of a proper name are North Pacific right whale (where "North Pacific" is a placename) and Bryde's whale (where Bryde was a person's name).

Prior to 15 February 2010 the common names were often written in title case, with every word capitalised. Most article titles have now been changed to sentence case per Talk:Bowhead whale, but the text of some articles may still need to be changed. Discussion leading to the February 2010 policy change is archived at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Cetaceans/Archive 4.

Taxobox
Each species article should use a Taxobox (usage instructions) to list standard information about that species.

Images
A good image of an individual of the species in question should go in the Taxobox, but other descriptive images in-lined at relevant parts of the article are great. A size-comparison diagram should accompany it (as the  argument).

The JPEG format is preferable for photographs and PNG or SVG for diagrams. For public domain resources try the American National Oceanic and Atomospheric Administration, particularly the National Marine Fisheries Historic Image Collection.

Range maps
The basic template map is the world map without country borders. Others can be found at Blank maps.

The blue colour shows where the species may be found and white is where it is absent. Some maps give the range of multiple species and separate the two with different colours. There is no standard for this yet.
 * The grey colour has R:205 G:195 B:204 (#cdc3cc).
 * The blue colour has R:0 G:0 B:255 (#0000ff)

When editing a map, save it at full-quality so that no blurring occurs at the edge of the countries. Blurring makes further editing of the map more difficult because the "fill" function of many image editing programs doesn't work with the blurred edges.

What to include
Cetacean species articles can contain:
 * a short introduction on the species, such as whether it is baleen or toothed
 * physical characteristics such as their birth and adult sizes and weights for both sexes, colour, callosities, fin placement, size and shape, and how one may distinguish between that and other species
 * biological elements such as life expectancy, gestation period, lactation period, speed, what they eat and interaction with other species
 * population and distribution, changes thereof over time and conservation status
 * human relationship with the species such as whaling, display in aquariums and whale-watching
 * the discoverer/describer of the species, scientific names, taxonomy debates and English meaning of the scientific name

This list is neither exhaustive nor its items appropriate for every article. Some information is probably best described in an article outside a particular species e.g. baleen. 

Resources
There are a huge number of books on the subject. The websites listed at cetacea may be useful for quick fact-verifying
 * http://www.acsonline.org/ American Cetacean Society
 * British Cetacean Site especially interesting is taxonomy
 * Society for Marine Mammalogy's List of marine mammal species and subspecies should be consulted for recognized species and species names
 * Cetacea.org homepage
 * Walker's Mammals of the World Online - Cetaceans (Unfortunately, the online edition of Walker's Mammals of the World is no longer available. The print edition may still be purchased through the Johns Hopkins University Press.)
 * Cetacean Society International

Free pictures
The NOAA has some great cetacean photos on the web. It is a U.S. Federal Government department, so its photos are public domain. They're on many websites and can be tricky to find through searches. Here are some examples:


 * http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/read/protspp/RightWhale/page3.html
 * http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/

Tools

 * Main tool page: toolserver.org


 * Reflinks - Edits bare references - adds title/dates etc. to bare references
 * Checklinks - Edit and repair external links
 * Dab solver - Quickly resolve ambiguous links.
 * Peer reviewer - Provides hints and suggestion to improving articles.