Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/left panel

A few Wikipedians have come together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in these articles. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles! For updates on Tree of Life and its subprojects, there is a monthly newletter published here to which you can subscribe.

Scope and related projects
This WikiProject is both a daughter project of WikiProject Biology and a meta-project in its own right. WikiProject Tree of Life aims primarily to represent the taxonomy and relationships of living organisms, as well as their extinct relatives, in a tree structure. Since there are millions of species, not all will be included, but we aim to handle as many as information, time, and interest permit. However, as a meta-project, Tree of Life directly includes only articles which have meaning across taxa or which pertain to taxonomy and systematics in general, or which do not fall under one of our daughter WikiProjects. A full directory of daughter WikiProjects has been listed below in the form of a cladogram. To see a directory of our sister WikiProjects under WikiProject Biology, see this link.

To see activity levels and active editors for these projects, use the Wikiproject Directory tool and find the project in question for further information. Some projects may not be listed. Current labels are based solely on template tags at the top of WikiProject pages and do not represent an in-depth assessment of the activity level of any project by WikiProject Tree of Life.

Outer

 * WikiProject Science
 * Wikiproject Biology
 * WikiProject Tree of Life

Inner

 * WikiProject Tree of Life
 * ToL Taxobox task force
 * Eukaryotes (Article)
 * WikiProject Animals
 * WikiProject Arthropods
 * WikiProject Insects
 * Ant task force
 * Hymenoptera task force
 * WikiProject Beetles
 * WikiProject Diptera
 * WikiProject Lepidoptera
 * WikiProject Mantodea (semi-active)
 * WikiProject Phasmatodea (inactive)
 * WikiProject Spiders
 * Mollusca (Article)
 * WikiProject Bivalves
 * WikiProject Cephalopods
 * WikiProject Gastropods
 * Vertebrata (Article)
 * WikiProject Fishes
 * Lobe-Fin task force (shared with WP:Palaeontology)
 * WikiProject Aquarium Fishes
 * WikiProject Fisheries and Fishing
 * WikiProject Sharks
 * WikiProject Amphibians and Reptiles
 * Pterosaurs task force (shared with WP:Palaeontology)
 * WikiProject Dinosaurs
 * Ankylosauria Task Force
 * WikiProject Turtles
 * WikiProject Birds
 * WikiProject Poultry (inactive)
 * Domestic Pigeon task force (defunct)
 * WikiProject Mammals
 * Bats task force
 * WikiProject Cats
 * WikiProject Cetaceans (semi-active)
 * WikiProject Dogs (semi-active)
 * Dog breeds task force (inactive)
 * WikiProject Equine
 * Horse breeds task force (Defunct)(shared with WP:AG)
 * Horse training task force (Inactive)
 * WikiProject Monotremes and Marsupials (defunct)
 * Mustelids work group (inactive)
 * Pocket pets work group (inactive)
 * WikiProject Primates
 * WikiProject Rodents (semi-active)
 * WikiProject Plants
 * WikiProject Aquatic plants (completely inactive)
 * WikiProject Banksia (inactive)
 * WikiProject Cannabis
 * WikiProject Carnivorous plants (inactive)
 * WikiProject Horticulture and Gardening
 * WikiProject Hypericaceae
 * WikiProject Medicinal botany (defunct)
 * WikiProject Pteridophytes (inactive)
 * WikiProject Fungi
 * Lichen task force
 * WikiProject Algae
 * WikiProject Protista
 * WikiProject Microbiology
 * WikiProject Viruses
 * WikiProject AIDS
 * WikiProject COVID-19
 * Location Based
 * WikiProject Australian biota
 * WikiProject Biota of Great Britain and Ireland (inactive)
 * WikiProject Japan: flora and fauna task force (inactive?)
 * WikiProject Marine life
 * WikiProject Palaeontology
 * Lobe-Fin task force (shared with WP: Fishes)
 * Pterosaurs task force (shared with WP: Amphibians and Reptiles)

Related WikiProjects

 * WikiProject Agriculture
 * Livestock task force
 * WikiProject Animal anatomy
 * WikiProject Animals in media
 * WikiProject Animal rights
 * WikiProject Evolutionary biology
 * WikiProject Ecoregions
 * WikiProject Forestry
 * WikiProject Wiki Makes Video
 * Parks
 * Wildlife
 * WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles
 * Global Names Index
 * WikiProject Veterinary medicine

Article titles
In cases where there is a formal common name (e.g. for birds), or when common names are well known and reasonably unique (e.g. "Cuvier's dwarf caiman"), they should be used for article titles. In all other cases, scientific names should be used.

See Naming conventions (flora) for article titles for plants and Naming conventions (fauna) for article titles for animals.

Note the following guidelines in using scientific names:
 * Names of genera are always italicized and capitalized, e.g. Homo, Rosa, Saccharomyces.
 * Species epithets are always italicized and preceded by the name of the genus, either in full or abbreviated (e.g. Homo sapiens or H. sapiens; never just sapiens), as an epithet may also be used for a different species in another genus. They are never capitalized.
 * Names of higher taxa are capitalized but not italicized, e.g. Hominidae, Mammalia, Animalia.
 * Common (vernacular) names are not capitalised (except for proper names that are part of them). See Manual of Style.

For a monotypic taxon (one that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon), a single article should cover both taxa (unless the higher-ranked one has had multiple circumscriptions, and an article is written to cover them all). If there is no common name, the article should generally go under the scientific name that is most often used when discussing the two taxa, or under the scientific name of lowest rank if there is no clear preference. However, for a monotypic genus (one that contains a single species), the genus name should be used, as it is included in the binomial nomenclature, and the genus title is more concise than the binomial. For instance, the order Amphionidacea, which has the single species Amphionides reynaudii, is discussed at Amphionides. If the name of a monotypic genus is shared with another topic, it is usually more appropriate to use a binomial as a natural disambiguation, rather than using a parenthetical disambiguating term for the genus. E.g., Alberta magna is a more natural search term than Alberta (plant).

Not all species need have separate articles. The simplest (and probably best) rule is to have no rule: if you have the time and energy to write up some particularly obscure subspecies that most people have never even heard of, go for it! As a general guideline, though, it's best to combine separate species into a single entry whenever it seems likely that there won't be enough text to make more than a short, unsatisfying stub otherwise. If the entry grows large enough to deserve splitting, that can always be done later.

A useful heuristic is to create articles in a "downwards" order, that is, family articles first, then genus, then species. If you find that information is getting thin, or the family/genus is small, leave the species information in the family or genus article. Don't try to force it down any further.

Taxon article templates
Articles about taxa, such as families, genera, or species, typically contain some or all of these sections:
 * (Physical) Description
 * Taxonomy
 * Distribution and habitat
 * Ecology and behavior
 * Conservation
 * Uses
 * Culture

See the general taxon template and descendant project pages, such as the WikiProject Plants taxon template, for more detail specific to different groups.

Taxoboxes Guide
Detailed taxonomic information, including notes on how taxa are defined and how they vary between different systems, belongs in the article proper. Where possible, however, a standard table will be provided to allow easier navigation between related groups and quick identification of what sort of organisms are being discussed. These are called taxoboxes. A typical taxobox is shown at right (it belongs on the top right of the page Cetacea).

There are three main sections to the taxobox:
 * A header showing the name of the group, sometimes followed by a representative image.
 * A table showing the placement of the group in a typical classification system.
 * A footer, whose content varies, showing the binomial name or a species, or a list of subgroups for higher taxa.

Some items that are often included, but are not (necessarily) standardized, include:
 * Breeding organizations' classifications (Dingo)
 * Range map (see, for example, Orca)
 * Synonyms (European lobster)

Position: The taxobox generally belongs at the top right corner of the article, unless it has been decided otherwise on the relevant talk page - for instance, if the article is not primarily about the biological group.

For cultivars — cultivated varieties of plants — don't use a taxobox; instead use a cultivar infobox (Infobox cultivar) as described at WikiProject Tree of Life/Cultivar infobox.

For breeds of animals, don't use a taxobox; instead use the appropriate breed template; see for example WikiProject Dogs/Dog breeds task force and WikiProject Equine/Horse breeds.

Talkpages
Tag talkpages with:

Categories
Major groups should be given their own categories. When possible, these should use the common name in the plural, except for plants, where WikiProject Plants uses scientific names by default (see WP:NCFLORA). In general, only articles about major subgroups should be added, and more specific articles should be included in subcategories. However, when there are only a few articles about members of the group, they can all go directly into the main category. Use your judgement on when to split, aiming for an approximate category size of 10-50 articles.

Note that in addition to taxa, categories may also contain informal subgroups. For instance Category:Primates may include an article or subcategory for monkeys, although they are not treated as a formal group. They may also include some other articles that pertain specifically to members of the group, although they are not about them.

Categories for articles about the biota of a region should be based on the common grouping of that region used by zoological, botanical, mycological etc. publications. For example, if it is common to separate a region based on political boundaries (as in parts of Europe), categories should be separated by countries. If it is common to separate regions based on geographic features (such as New Guinea), categories should be separated by geographic region.