Talk:Homotherini

Latest comment: 2 years ago by SilverTiger12 in topic Spelling

Title of this article

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To quote the second sentence of the article: "The tribe is commonly known as scimitar-toothed cats." One might ask why the article is not titled this as per WP:COMMONAME. Regards, William Harris • (talk) • 11:18, 5 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

It also depends on which name is used by most sources. Haven't looked into this one, but a Google scholar, or even regular Google, search could sort it out. Or well, just took a quick look (with "scimitar toothed" in quotes, to leave out results for saber toothed cat), and seems the numbers are in favour of the common name (though it seems many instances use it to refer to Homotherium specifically)... FunkMonk (talk) 13:01, 5 May 2017 (UTC)Reply
We can expect the scientists to have a preference for just the Latin name. However, your "average man in his tree" is not going to do a search for something called "Homotherini" but he will do a search for something called the "scimitar-toothed cat". I am aware that a redirect will bring visitors to this page but WP:COMMONAME is fairly clear on its requirements. Regards, William Harris • (talk) • 05:57, 6 May 2017 (UTC)Reply
WP:Common name says "Common name" in the context of article naming means a commonly or frequently used name, and not necessarily a common name as used in some disciplines in opposition to scientific name", so the scientific name isn't necessarily ruled out, but in this case, yes, it does seem "scimitar toothed" is mostly used in general. We have hundreds of living reptile and plant articles that are placed at the scientific name rather than the common name, so the rules aren't applied evenly, though it seems a bit strange to me in those cases, considering how standardisation-obsessed some people are around here. FunkMonk (talk) 07:44, 6 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

Spelling

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FossilWorks says the correct spelling is "Homotheriini" and, truth be told, it makes sense for taxon names derived from -therium (compare with e.g. Pampatheriidae, Chalicotheriinae).--Leptictidium (mt) 14:28, 24 September 2021 (UTC)Reply

Most of the literature I've read that refers to Homotherini uses Homotherini, not Homotheriini. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 12:46, 27 September 2021 (UTC)Reply