User:Abbieloring/sandbox

User:Abbieloring/sandbox.group.herpetologist

Week 13

Finally got my picture in the right spot!!!! (Thanks Ian)

Added a few small edits--linked to poisonous amphibians and nocturnal page, and switched the order of the nictitating membrane and 'completely green' sentences.

Behavior

red eyed tree frogs are actually not poisonous, and rely on camouflage to protect themselves. They are nocturnal, sleeping for most of the day. In order to hide from predators, they cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their bellies, and shut their red eyes. Thus, they appear almost completely green, and well hidden among the foliage. They do not have a true eyelid, but rather a Nictitating membrane that allows light to enter the eye so that they will awaken when predators are approaching.

Week 12 Additional Edits

I added sources that were missing from the reproduction section, and deleted information that I couldn't find a source for. I also reworded some awkward sections.

I copied over all of my edits to the actual Agalychnis callidryas Wikipedia page except the photo which I can't get it in the right spot!!!!

Changes for this week are in bold.

Reproduction

Although random mating in Agalychnis callidryas has been documented, studies have shown that the an increased body size is an indicator of male quality while looking for a mate. During the mating season, the male frogs shake the branches where they are sitting to improve their chances of finding a mate by keeping rivals at bay. This is the first evidence that tree-dwelling vertebrates use vibration to communicate. When rainfall is at its highest, a male red-eyed treefrog calls "chack" to get the attention of the female. Females use the call, as well as color (specifically, the stripped sides) of the male frog, in order to find a possible mate. Both the call and color of the male frog show territorial display, and anti-predatory behavior. During amplexus, the female carries the male on her back for several hours during the oviposition process. Because of external egg fertilization, there is still risk of competition even after a female has selected a mate. There is not sperm priority in Agalychnis callidryas, and so a single clutch of eggs may have been fertilized by multiple males. The female chooses a leaf above a pond or large puddle on which to lay her clutch of roughly 40 eggs. Since oviposition generally occurs on both sides of a leaf, red-eyed treefrogs may fold the leaf to hide the eggs from predators. They also produce sticky jelly to glue the eggs together; this may protect the eggs from splitting and dehydration.

Draft Two of Full Article

Words and phrases in bold are my proposed additions, and everything else is from the original article.

Description

This species has large, bright red eyes with vertically narrowed pupils. The red eyed tree frog is very colorful, with a vibrant green body, yellow and blue vertical stripes along its side, a white underside, and brightly colored orange or red feet. Additionally, they have sticky pads on their toes that allow them to cling onto leaves . The skin on the red-eyed treefrog's belly is soft and fragile, whereas the back is thicker and rougher. On average, the males are about two inches long, and the females are slightly bigger at around 3 inches.

Distribution and habitat

Red-eyed treefrogs inhabit areas near rivers and ponds in rainforests and humid lowlands on the Atlantic slopes from southern Veracruz and northern Oaxaca in Mexico, to central Panama and northern Colombia. They also live on the Pacific slope in southwestern Nicaragua and southwestern Costa Rica to eastern Panama. The optimum temperature for red-eyed treefrogs is 24–29 °C (75–84 °F) in the daytime, and 19–25 °C (66–77 °F) at night. Agalychnis callidryas also require high humidity levels of at least 80%.

Behavior

An image of the nictitating membrane seen in Red Eyed Tree Frogs.

Phyllomedusine treefrogs are arboreal, meaning they spend a majority of their lives in trees; they are excellent jumpers. Despite their bright coloring, red-eyed treefrogs are actually not poisonous, and rely on camouflage to protect themselves. During the day, they remain motionless, cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their bellies, and shut their red eyes. They do not have a true eyelid, but rather a Nictitating membrane that allows light to enter the eye so that they will awaken when predators are approaching. Thus, they appear almost completely green, and well hidden among the foliage. Their large red eyes not only aid in their ability to see at night, but also serve as a defensive adaptation through deimatic behaviour. When a red-eyed treefrog detects an approaching predator, it abruptly opens its eyes and stares at the predator. The sudden appearance of the red eyes may startle the predator, giving the frog a chance to flee.

Diet

Red-eyed treefrogs are insectivores, eating crickets, moths, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects. Sometimes, they eat smaller frogs. Tadpoles mostly eat fruit flies and pinhead crickets.

Reproduction

It has been proven that even though random mating has been documented, through different studies that were done a males body size has been an indicator of male quality while looking for a mate. The larger the frog signifies older age which can reflect a better partner. During the mating season, the male frogs shake the branches where they are sitting to improve their chances of finding a mate by keeping rivals at bay. This is the first evidence that tree-dwelling vertebrates use vibration to communicate. When rainfall is at its highest, a male red-eyed treefrog calls "chack" to get the attention of the female. Females use the call, as well as color of the male frog, in order to find a possible mate. Both the call and color of the male frog show territorial display, and anti-predatory behavior. During amplexus, the female carries the male on her back for several hours during the oviposition process. Because of external egg fertilization, there is still risk of competition even after a female has selected a mate. There is not sperm priority in Agalychnis callidryas, and so a single clutch of eggs may have been fertilized by multiple males. The female chooses a leaf above a pond or large puddle on which to lay her clutch of roughly 40 eggs. Since oviposition generally occurs on both sides of a leaf, red-eyed treefrogs may fold the leaf to hide the eggs from predators. They also produce sticky jelly to glue the eggs together; this may protect the eggs from splitting and dehydration.

The eggs develop into tadpoles, which hatch after six to seven days and fall into the water below. Red eyed tree frog embryos use natural day and night light cycles as a signal for when to hatch, and tend to hatch just after nightfall. Red-eyed treefrog eggs may hatch early (exhibiting phenotypic plasticity) when a change in the environment signals a danger to their survival. Dragonflies, fish, and water beetles prey on the tadpoles. The tadpoles remain in the water from three weeks to several months, until they metamorphose into frogs. The time of metamorphosis depends on duration of larval stage, which varies depending on environment. After metamorphosis, the color of tadpoles' torsos changes from green to brown, and their eyes, which are initially yellow, turn into deep red without much side patterning. These changes mark maturity. The lifespan of red-eyed treefrogs is about five years.

Young frogs that survive the first few weeks after metamorphosis move into the undergrowth and security of plants near their natal pools, often into the hollows of tubular plants such as bromeliads. Young frogs prey on very small flies and other insects during the first months of their lives. The young mature after two years and begin mating at the age of three to four years. These treefrogs are known to live up to five years (data from captive-breeding programs), depending on the health and conditions of their habitat (when aided by abundant plant growth, plenty of fresh water, and an abundance of small and larger insects on which to prey).

They sometimes breed successfully in captivity if kept in high-humidity vivaria (e.g., by using misting equipment), tropical plants such as Bromelia and other epiphyte plants, together with well-aerated water pools. Their captive habitat should have a light cycle with 11–12 hours of daylight and an average day temperature of is 26–28 °C (79–82 °F) and night-time averages of is 22–25 °C (72–77 °F). Simulating a rainy season once a year in November to December encourages reproduction.

Phenotypic plasticity

Main article: Phenotypic plasticity

Red-eyed treefrogs' embryos exhibit phenotypic plasticity, hatching early in response to disturbance to protect themselves. Though embryos are bred synchronously, they normally hatch after 6 to 10 days from oviposition without disturbance. However, a simultaneously early hatching in entire clutches is triggered when embryos are exposed to their predators or threatening environmental changes such as rainstorm and flood. Early hatching has also been linked with egg dehydration, hatching earlier in dry egg clutches than in wet ones.

Predators are the major cause of this response. Since these frogs usually lay eggs on both the upper and the undersides of leaves above ponds, clutches need to protect themselves against arboreal, aerial and aquatic predators, such as snakes, dragonflies, fish, monkeys, and pathogenic fungi. When predators are close enough to produce detectable vibration, the embryos assess disturbance. After a few seconds, embryos vigorously hatch out into tadpoles and spread out to escape. Since eggs are usually laid above ponds, the response improves survival because tadpoles often fall into water on hatching. When tadpoles fall onto dry ground, they can survive up to 20 hours without water. However, vibration and disturbance caused by unthreatening environmental changes or other species do not induce early hatching.

Ideas to Incorporate Into Next Draft From Peer Reviews

• Add photo caption
• Italicize genus species names!!
• Make it more clear what is being edited
  • Quotations were sections from the article, and then my edits were added below. I will make this more obvious in the next draft though.
• Add edits to the other sections
• Find book sources instead of websites

Agalychnis callidryas Edits

Agalychnis callidryas

Sections

Description

This species has large, bright red eyes with vertically narrowed pupils. The red eyed tree frog is very colorful, with a vibrant green body, yellow and blue vertical stripes along its side, a white underside, and brightly colored orange or red feet. Additionally, they have sticky pads on their toes that allow them to cling onto leaves . The skin on the red-eyed treefrog's belly is soft and fragile, whereas the back is thicker and rougher. On average, the males are about two inches long, and the females are slightly bigger at around 3 inches.

I changed this portion to be more accurate, as they are not aquatic frogs and do not have webbed feet. I also added a source because there was not one attached to this section previously. Because there was no source, and because I could not determine if the zoo site was plagiarized, I also just changed the wording around to be safe.

Distribution and Habitat

"The optimum temperature for red-eyed treefrogs is 24–29 °C (75–84 °F) in the daytime, and 19–25 °C (66–77 °F) at night."

Agalychnis callidryas also require high humidity levels of at least 80%.

Behavior

"During the day, they remain motionless, cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their bellies, and shut their red eyes"

To this section, I want to add information about the Nictitating membrane that covers their eyes while they sleep.

New section proposal: During the day, they remain motionless, cover their blue sides with their back legs, tuck their bright feet under their bellies, and shut their red eyes. They do not have a true eyelid, but rather a Nictitating membrane that allows light to enter the eye so that they will awaken when predators are approaching.

"The large red eyes" not only aid in their ability to see at night, but also "serve as a defensive adaptation through deimatic behaviour."

Nictitating membrane

Diet

Red-eyed treefrogs are insectivores, eating crickets, moths, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects. Sometimes, they eat smaller frogs. Tadpoles mostly eat fruit flies and pinhead crickets.

Reproduction

"The eggs develop into tadpoles, which hatch after six to seven days and fall into the water below."

My addition: Red eyed tree frog embryos use natural day and night light cycles as a signal for when to hatch, and tend to hatch just after nightfall.

"Red-eyed treefrog eggs [may] hatch early (exhibiting phenotypic plasticity) when a change in the environment signals a danger to their survival"

Articles to Potentially Edit

Agalychnis callidryas

I have two Red Eyed Tree Frogs that I adore, and so I think that it would be cool to contribute to the information available on them. I also read somewhere that they have such large eyes because they use them to push food down their throats (I have no source so it could be entirely fake) but I think that that is really cool and want to do more research on it.

The page on them is extremely brief so mainly I just want to find more information to add. A specific thing that I noticed right away that the article did not include is the mesh eyelids that they have. I think it is a really interesting adaptation and would want to add in something about that.

Other helpful articles could be: Salientia Amphibian Frog

Glass frog

The translucent underbelly of glass frogs has always really intrigued me and i would like to learn more about how this evolved, and what types of potential benefits it could offer to the animal. Is the skin thinner or just clear?

The article does not include a section on the evolutionary history of these frogs, and I think that could be a really important section to add.

Links: Chordate Hyloidea Neobatrachia

Camel

Growing up I always sort of just accepted that camels had humps without really ever considering what that meant for them anatomically. I am curious how they arose, and what type of benefits they offer to the animal. Why aren't humps more common?

This article is extremely thorough, and so finding edits myself might be a little challenging. What I liked about that though is that there is constant updates to the talk page. There are already multiple proposed edits for 2021. I think that I could assist in working on those proposed edits, but more importantly I think that working on this page would give me a really good idea about the types of things that can be included in a thoroughly put together Wikipedia page.

Useful links: Mammal Ungulate Camelidae

Hagfish Article Edits

There is a missing citation in the reproduction section article. I want to try to find the source that they got it from.

Hagfish have a mesonephric kidney and are often neotenic of their pronephric kidney. The kidney(s) are drained via mesonephric/archinephric duct. Unlike many other vertebrates, this duct is separate from the reproductive tract. Unlike all other vertebrates, the proximal tubule of the nephron is also connected with the coelom, provided lubrication.^{[citation needed]}

I found information matching this in our textbook in chapter 14 so I added the reference leading to it (it is listed as reference 41 on the Hagfish page). I did not specify a specific section of the textbook, but can add that if necessary.

Feedback: Discussion and Adding to an Article

• I saw that you added the citation and that is fantastic. I would highly recommend that you also draft the citation here. It is absolutely true that copy-pasting a citation from your sandbox to the article you are working on will result in an error maybe 50% of the time. However, by working on it here first, you will be familiar with the critical components of the citation and be able to preview it rather than struggle with trying to get that to work on the article page itself.
• That said, the citation you added looks great and is quite helpful.
• Your organization above is looking great. I cannot wait to get to your suggested pages for the rest of the semester.
• Remember to "sign" your work after submission. Even though this is your sandbox and you do not need to do it, get into the habit as it is an expectation of good faith practice when contributing to articles or talk pages.
• Nice work on your discussion notes! Osquaesitor (talk) 18:28, 12 March 2021 (UTC)

Hagfish Article Evaluation

Article:

Hagfish

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?

This article was very through, and everything was on topic.

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

This article was very neutral and avoided any use of judgement-based wording.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

Nope!

Check a few citations.

The citations seem to be properly formatted and all have links attached to them.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?

The references are all from scientific articles and are good neutral sources.

Are there any instances of plagiarism on the page?

In the reproduction section, there is a paragraph that is missing a citation and just says “citation needed”.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

The section about reproduction could use some more sources. It claims that there is not very much information on Hagfish, but then gives multiple points without explaining how that information is known.

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

There are people discussing specific components of the anatomical sections of the page, and offering ideas on how to improve them.

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

This article has a C-class rating and was used in the Fishes, Food and Drink, and Fisheries and Fishing WikiProjects

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

I really enjoyed the podcast on Hagfish that we listened to, and was surprised how much of the information from there was included in this article. Specifically, the part about the slime being used as a potential thread because from the podcast I had thought that was a niche idea. I also liked that this article was able to give a much deeper context about the specific anatomical components of hagfish that the podcast did not have time to cover.

Peer Reviews

Ornithology Review

I really liked how you both set up your sandbox. Having it in a form that looks really similar to the Wikipedia page makes it easy to understand and follow. You both also did a great job adding sources and photos that contribute to the pages. The main issues that I found in the page are ones that were previously mentioned, specifically grammar and the ‘syrinx’ link going to a Greek nymph. Other than that, these look like really good edits!

Shark Anatomy Review

Your sandbox is set up well and nicely organized. The only issue is that I am having trouble figuring out what exactly your edits are without going back and forth from this sandbox to the page. It would be much easier to follow if there was some sort of differentiation between things copied over, and new edits. Both the ‘Shark Internal Organs’ section and the ‘Shark teeth’ section describe a component of the shark as ‘fascinating’ which is objective and makes it seemed biased. There also are a few areas where the wording just seems a little awkward (for example, the skin section felt a little awkward to read), and I think the shark tooth section is missing a few commas that would make the sentences flow more easily. Overall, this is really good, and you guys have good proposed edits!

Group Discussions & Assignments

Group Discussion on Plagiarism

Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?

These would be poor sources because they are often very opinion based, and usually lacking sources. Additionally, authors of these type of sources usually gain profit off of their number of viewers/ readers and so they want the most 'juicy' story even if it derives from the truth.

What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?

It would be biased, because every company wants to portray themselves in the best light. In order to get the full picture, it is important to get information from outside, nonbiased sources.

What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?

A copyright violation is when someone's work is used without their permission, whereas plagiarism is specifically when words taken from another person are played off as the new authors' own word.

What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?

Getting a good understanding of a topic so that you are able to talk about it without relying on the words of someone else. Taking notes on articles to refer to, rather than having to directly look back at the wording they used. Using our sandboxes to edit the article and ensure that we are coming up with our own specific wording.

Group Discussion on Content Gaps

Discussion for Abbie (Hagfish) Taylor (Shark) and Ashley (Cat anatomy)

1) Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?

Content gaps refer to instances where information is missing that is key to getting the full understanding of the topic. It is much easier for people who are really well versed in the topic to notice these content gaps, but readers could consciously be looking for these gaps in order to help improve the article.

2) What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?

Content gaps could arise if the author has not done enough research on the topic. A possible way to remedy this would be to get more sources and information on the topic

3) Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?

Yes. Individuals can carry specific biases with them that would harm the accuracy of a page. For instance, if the owner of a big oil company wrote a page on fracking, it would likely carry less credibility than if it was written by a neutral source.

4) What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?

To be unbiased means that you do not place an opinion on a topic, and rather keep a neutral standpoint, relying only on factual evidence. This is similar to our definitions of bias, because we agree that having bias can harm accuracy of an article.