Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Pterosaurs

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I agree with you completely. However, the minimal data that exists on the page is such that, right now, this page is qualified for deletion. I am adding it to the WikiProject list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory/Science anyway, but you might want to check out the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Guide for some information on how to format the page and arrange the project's goals and methods so as to most easily attract new members. Badbilltucker 21:59, 14 September 2006 (UTC)

I set this page up when I thought I'd have enough time to get things rolling -- I didn't, and I had since forgotten. However, I think there are enough editors on that will be interested in this to make it worthwhile leaving it up for now. John.Conway 02:44, 15 September 2006 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Project directory

Hello. The WikiProject Council has recently updated the Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory. This new directory includes a variety of categories and subcategories which will, with luck, potentially draw new members to the projects who are interested in those specific subjects. Please review the directory and make any changes to the entries for your project that you see fit. There is also a directory of portals, at User:B2T2/Portal, listing all the existing portals. Feel free to add any of them to the portals or comments section of your entries in the directory. The three columns regarding assessment, peer review, and collaboration are included in the directory for both the use of the projects themselves and for that of others. Having such departments will allow a project to more quickly and easily identify its most important articles and its articles in greatest need of improvement. If you have not already done so, please consider whether your project would benefit from having departments which deal in these matters. It is my hope that all the changes to the directory can be finished by the first of next month. Please feel free to make any changes you see fit to the entries for your project before then. If you should have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you. B2T2 23:46, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wildlife Barnstar

There is currently a barnstar proposal at Wikipedia:Barnstar and award proposals/New Proposals#Wildlife Barnstar for a barnstar which would be available for use for this project. Please feel free to visit the page and make any comments you see fit. Badbilltucker 15:28, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Working towards an FA

I have just been sticking some subheadings in categories similar to dino pages. Pteranodon looks to have been the most developed so far and workable to FA I think...Cas Liber 19:42, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Needs lots of work though. More details need to be added in the discovery and species section. The paleobiology section needs to be expanded and divided into subsections, illustrations are lacking and there is only two references. ArthurWeasley 19:55, 15 November 2006 (UTC)
Absolutely. Agree with all your points. There does seem to be quite a bit of material online which looks promising at first glance.Cas Liber 23:19, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pterodactyl

The really muddled article for Pterodactyl still bothers me, so I'm going to bring this up again. ;) This article really consists of two parts--a short, simplified or "dumbed down" verison of Pterosaur, plus a long and questionable list of pterosaurs in pop culture. I propose re-naming Pterodactyl to Pterosaurs in popular culture, in parallel to Dinosaurs in popular culture. Pterodactyl should re-direct to Pterosaur, Pterodactyloidea, or Pterodactylus, with an explaination of its (mis)use as a generic term for pterosaur moved to that page.Dinoguy2 19:56, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

Could someone set up a guideline for pterosaur categories on the main page? Currently, the section only talks about dinosaur categories, a relic of when the page was lifted from Wikipedia:WikiProject Dinosaurs. I've changed all the other instances of "dinosaur" to "pterosaur", but that category section will need special attention. Firsfron of Ronchester 08:24, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

I think eventually we can and should categorize down to the family (or superfamily, there aren't nearly as many named pteroaur genera as there are dinosaurs) level. As it stands, with the majority of pterosaur genera redlinks, using just Cat: pterosaurs will due (splitting it into Ramphorhynchoids and Pterodactyloids may help the reader with navigation, though it looks like very few current articles are Ramphs).Dinoguy2 14:35, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Topic:Paleontology

Hello at Wikiversity there is a disipline in development on palaeontology that needs help. The courses could help with te development of articles on wikipedia so it is a long term program. Interested people can go to this URL: http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Topic:Paleontology#Content_summary Thanks for reading Enlil Ninlil 03:05, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia Day Awards

Hello, all. It was initially my hope to try to have this done as part of Esperanza's proposal for an appreciation week to end on Wikipedia Day, January 15. However, several people have once again proposed the entirety of Esperanza for deletion, so that might not work. It was the intention of the Appreciation Week proposal to set aside a given time when the various individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the encyclopedia would be recognized and honored. I believe that, with some effort, this could still be done. My proposal is to, with luck, try to organize the various WikiProjects and other entities of wikipedia to take part in a larger celebrartion of its contributors to take place in January, probably beginning January 15, 2007. I have created yet another new subpage for myself (a weakness of mine, I'm afraid) at User talk:Badbilltucker/Appreciation Week where I would greatly appreciate any indications from the members of this project as to whether and how they might be willing and/or able to assist in recognizing the contributions of our editors. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:21, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dermodactylus on the front page

...as a DYK. :) J. Spencer 05:25, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WP:TOL template

I'm working on a proposal to subsume all the WP:TOL project banners into a single one. Please see Wikipedia:WikiProject Tree of Life/Template union proposal and its talk page. Circeus 19:22, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Animals project proposal

I think it's both a pity and somewhat illogical that we have no animal WikiProject despite the fact that there are over 20 projects that are basically its daughters. There are also other projects that could emerge from it in the future, such as one on animal behavior. The project would provide a central place for people from all animal projects to talk, a central set of guidelines for articles on animals and zoology, and an assessment system for articles related to animals. If you are interested in creating such a project please visit Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Tree of life#Animals project to discuss. Richard001 08:44, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The following projects would come under the parentage of this project:

[edit] Anatomical stuff for artists!

Few anatomical notes, especially of interest for people doing pterosaur restorations, from John Conway's blog about the Flugsaurier conference.

“ Chris and I both independently reached the conclusion that the wing finger flexes into flight position, and hyperextends to fold. The hand is essentially palm forward during flight (rather than palm-down, as is common in pictures). Chris also pretty convincingly argued that the pteroid articulates on the back underside of the preaxial carpal not on the top, as has been shown in countless drawings -- if true (and I'll bet my bottom dollar it is), it pretty much sinks the notion that the pteroid could point forward during flight.

Laurence Browning and the Bristol crew presented work on the flexibility of the wing spar using beam theory, and finite element analysis. The results were pretty similar to what I remember of similar work done during the Stanford Pterosaur Project - the outer wing was quite flexible. It would have flexed upward during flight quite a bit, though I don't remember the exact numbers. I have known about this for some time, and largely failed to incorporate it into my drawings. This has given me the nudge I needed, and I have updated my paintings where appropriate.”

http://jconway.deviantart.com/journal/14699332/#journal

So, no forward-pointing pteroids, palms forward, flexed wing tips. Good stuff, can't wait for some of these paprers to come out, especially the supposedly frigging-spectacular Triassic specimen everybody's (not) talking about... Dinoguy2 10:30, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] S. Christopher Bennett's papers

A number of his papers are available here, which should be very useful for ptero articles. J. Spencer 14:12, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed change to Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna)

There is a current proposal to change an animal-related naming convention, which directly effects the the Manual of Style guideline, and the naming conventions policy. If you are interested, your input would be appreciated. Justin chat 06:32, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Anurognathus eyes

[edit] Cearadactyls

An article request! :) There should be an article on cearadactyls. I'm actually kind of confused about this: these creatures appear in the novel Jurassic Park, described as fish-eating pterosaurs; and all the other dinosaurs and dinosaur-related animals (yes, I do know pterosaurs aren't actually dinosaurs) named in the novel actually exist (though many are depicted inaccurately), but I can't find any sources for cearadactyls; somebody more knowledgable then me about pterosaurs should resolve this. —Lowellian (reply) 13:40, 29 March 2008 (UTC)

Oh, never mind! I just realized the page already existed, just at the different name Cearadactylus. Well, I've created a redirect from cearadactyls now. :) —Lowellian (reply) 13:46, 29 March 2008 (UTC)