Talk:Mark McMenamin

Lastest revision violates Wikipedia guidelines

This page was vandalized in Oct. 2011. The current revision has introduced unsourced or poorly-sourced, contentious material. The implied charge of McMenamin conducting pseudoscience is particularly serious. This false charge has been inappropriately applied to a successful, developing research programme that continues to generate first-rate science (several new papers are in press in prestigious, peer-reviewed journals).

The most recent page revisions are in violation of Wikipedia guidelines as I understand them. The apparent motive for this distortion of a Wikipedia entry is that some paleontologists are disgruntled because of new research strategies calling for reinterpretation of the Cambrian Explosion phenomenon. The new approaches are perceived by some as a threat to Neodarwinian interpretations. Perhaps a section should be added to this page documenting McMenamin's critique of the conventional Neodarwinian model. He has several interesting publications on the subject. Furthermore, he is not the only one pointing out need for reconsideration of this and related topics.

Updates will soon be added to this page to reflect McMenamin's presentations in October 2013 at the Geological Society of America (GSA) meeting in Denver, Colorado. At McMenamin's presentation on the Triassic Kraken at this meeting, on the afternoon of October 30, 2013, certain persons attempted to block the filming of McMenamin's talk by Bearkatt Productions of the UK, who had prior permission from both the GSA and the Paleontological Society (PS). Bearkatt has demanded apologies from both the GSA and the PS for the disruption, which may have involved high officials in the PS. Edits to this page that have the character of an ad hominem attack must be avoided, so that the critical scientific issues under consideration may not be obscured.

Circulationsys (talk) 21:13, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

On the flip side, I find that a number of Circulationsys' edits to this page (and there are many) are exclusively positive with respect to McMenamin's research in a biased manner. As noted by others already, this page is far from being neutral in accordance with Wikipedia's guidelines. Lythronaxargestes (talk) 19:49, 18 July 2016 (UTC)

There is general agreement among the scientific community with Lythronaxargestes; the validity of McMenamin's research is misrepresented here, and this page has largely been written by a support of McMenamin. This page ideally needs rewriting with a non-biased viewpoint. 2601:545:C100:2FF0:3C7B:49C3:1C0A:778B (talk) 13:25, 14 January 2018 (UTC)

Carthaginian World Map references

The subsection "Carthaginian World Map" cites McMenamin's own work to support the assertion versus a third-party or other neutral, objective source. It also cites a rather random entry from a coin catalog. Neither citation objectively supports the contention and allows an uncritical reader to perceive the section as generally accurate and accepted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 132.3.41.81 (talk) 14:15, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Third-party sources needed

This article is almost entirely sourced from McMenamin's own research or affiliated sites, and I've removed paragraphs that appear to merely highlight research without the needed third-party sources that can provide context and ensure neutrality, per the Neutral point of view policy. We should focus most heavily on research that has been covered other sources, and cite those (e.g. "Leonardo fossil sketch may depict early nests" from Nature) and cite those rather than (or in addition to) the primary research rather than present a potentially one-sided view. University press releases, or articles that simply repackage press releases, should similarly be given little or no weight. --Animalparty-- (talk) 02:38, 4 February 2015 (UTC)
Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL
Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Update: here are some more independent, secondary sources about McMenamin and his work, roughly sorted into the article's current subheadings. These sources are provided for future restructuring to better ensure objectivity. More are welcome. --Animalparty-- (talk) 20:41, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Origins of complex life/Ediacaran fauna

• Chapter 9: Motherland, in: Nield, Ted (2007). Supercontinent : ten billion years in the life of our planet. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674026599.
• Macone, Steve (June 3, 2007). "Out there". The Boston Globe.
• Sullivan, Walter (April 4, 1995). "Oldest Multicell Organisms Are Reported in Fossil Find". The New York Times.
• "Earth's Early Cannibals Caught in the Act". Discovery News. February 11, 2013.
  • Book reviews
  • Tokaryk, Tim (1999). "Strange Animal". American Scientist. Jan–Feb. (The Garden of Ediacara)
  • Baumiller, Tomasz (1999). "A Neovitalist View of Evolution" (PDF). Complexity. 4 (3): 39–40. (The Garden of Ediacara)
  • Waggoner, Ben (15 March 1999). "Review: Garden of Ediacara". Palaeontologia Electronica.

Hypersea

• Zimmer, Carl (October 1995). "Hypersea Invasion". Discover Magazine.
• Vachhani, Ashish (May 15, 1995). "Hyperactivity In Hypersea". Down to Earth.
• Kaya (1996). Book Review: Hypersea: Life on Land. Mark A. S. McMenamin, Dianna L. S. McMenamin. Quarterly Review of Biology, 71(1), 122.