Taxonomy templates
Taxobox templates
- Which should be used?
- Changing the taxa displayed
- Convert a taxobox to an automated taxobox
- Glossary of automated taxobox parameters
- Automatic taxobox – mainly for genera and higher taxa
- Speciesbox – for a species
- Subspeciesbox – for an animal subspecies
- Infraspeciesbox – for a plant subspecies or variety
- Hybridbox – for an animal hybrid within a genus
- Ichnobox – for a trace fossil
- Oobox – for a fossil egg
- Virusbox – for viruses and non-cellular life
- Paraphyletic group – for concepts that do not correspond to a monophyletic clade
- Population taxobox - for notable populations of subspecies of animals
Sometimes, taxonomy is not as simple as we might like, so taxonomy templates need to handle more unusual features and a taxobox needs to contain more information than just ranks and taxon names. Some advanced cases are described here. Do ask at Wikipedia talk:Automated taxobox system if you need more information.
Taxon variants
[edit]Sometimes it is desirable to have slightly different taxonomy templates for what is fundamentally the same taxon – "taxon variants". The convention in these cases is to use put "/variant-identifier" after the name of the taxon: for example, Template:Taxonomy/Corallinaceae and Template:Taxonomy/Corallinaceae/stem-group. The "taxon variant" identified by the "/variant-identifier" can pick up most of its data by using the same_as
parameter. Thus Template:Taxonomy/Corallinaceae/stem-group has |same_as=Corallinaceae
.
Conventional values for "/variant-identifier" include:
- "/stem-group" and "/total-group"; both should be hyphenated. These would have
|rank=stem group
and|rank=total group
respectively. Example – Template:Taxonomy/Chelicerata/stem-group. - "/skip" – used when it is necessary to skip to a higher level in the taxonomic hierarchy. Example Template:Taxonomy/Avialae/skip; here
parent
is set to skip Class Reptilia to avoid bird taxonomies showing both this class and Class Aves. See #Skip taxonomy templates. - "/?" – used when it is not certain that this is the correct taxon. The link text will automatically have " (?)" after the taxon name. Example – Template:Taxonomy/Graptolithina/?. See #Questionable assignments.
- "/displayed" – used when it is appropriate to show an ancestor taxon only for a certain group of its descendant taxa, while picking up all other parameter values from the "plain" taxonomy template for the same taxon. The variant taxon has
|always_display=yes
while usingsame_as
for all the other parameters. - "/taxon" – used of necessity for all taxonomy templates with titles like "Template:Taxonomy/Incertae sedis/taxon", since there isn't a single "incertae sedis" taxon. See #Incertae sedis taxonomy templates.
Skip taxonomy templates
[edit]A "skip taxonomy template" has the same title as a normal taxonomy template, but with "/skip" added to the end. Internally the skip taxonomy template at "Template:Taxonomy/taxon-name/skip" is coded like this:
{{Don't edit this line {{{machine code|}}} |same_as = taxon-name |parent = parent-taxon-name }}
This says that taxon-name/skip has the same values of rank, extinction status, etc. as taxon-name, except that its parent is parent-taxon-name, which will be higher up the taxonomic hierarchy. (When creating a skip taxonomy template, it can be prefilled if you use the correct page naming convention.)
To use a skip taxonomy template, the taxonomy template at the level below it must have |parent=parent-taxon-name/skip
.
See Template:Taxonomy/Ornithurae/skip as an example. Note the "..... ....." lines in the right-hand table that show where levels have been skipped, and the information at the bottom of the left-hand table.
To link an automatic taxobox to a skip taxonomy template, put |taxon=taxon-name/skip
in the taxobox template in the article.
Questionable assignments
[edit]Example output | |
---|---|
Order: | Radiodonta |
Family: | Anomalocarididae (?) |
Genus: | Pambdeleurion |
In the example, Pambdelurion might belong to the family Anomalocarididae: but this is questionable, so in the taxobox, the family should be shown with "(?)" following it. Template:Taxonomy/Pambdelurion has |parent=Anomalocarididae/?
. Then Template:Taxonomy/Anomalocarididae/? uses |same_as=Anomalocaridae
to pick up the relevant information.
If a template of the form "Template:Taxonomy/taxon/?" does not yet exist, a link will walk you through how to create it.
Category:Taxonomy templates with query shows taxonomy templates with questionable assignments.
As from January 2017, the minimum content of an /? taxonomy template is of the form:
{{Don't edit this line {{{machine code|}}} | same_as = }}
where |same_as=
is set to the taxon that is questionable. The "(?)" is added automatically by the automated taxobox system, based on the "/?" in the title of the taxonomy template.
Questionable assignment (two levels)
[edit]Example output | |
---|---|
Clade: | Polysporangiophyta (?) |
Class: | Horneophytopsida (?) |
Genus: | Tortilicaulis |
In the example, Tortilicaulis probably belongs to the class Horneophytopsida within the clade Polysporangiophyta, but cannot be assigned to either with certainty. To indicate this, Template:Taxonomy/Tortilicaulis has |parent=Horneophytopsida/?/?
. Template:Taxonomy/Horneophytopsida/?/? in turn has |parent=Polysporangiophyta/?
, making use of Template:Taxonomy/Polysporangiophyta/?.
If a template of the form "Template:Taxonomy/taxon/?/?" does not yet exist, a link will walk you through how to create it.
The minimum content of a /?/? taxonomy template is of the form:
{{Don't edit this line {{{machine code|}}} | same_as = | parent = .../? }}
where |same_as=
is set to the taxon that is questionable; its parent in turn is set to the expected parent with "/?" added.
This process can be continued indefinitely. A taxonomy template with N repeats of "/?" at the end of its title should have its parent set to a taxon name followed by N-1 repeats of "/?". As of January 2017[update], there is no automated support for creating such templates beyond N = 2.
Incertae sedis taxonomy templates
[edit]Example output | |
---|---|
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | incertae sedis |
Genus: | Skania |
In the example, Grayenulla is placed in Salticinae, but its relationship to other jumping spiders – and in particular the tribe that it should be placed in – is unknown. To use the technical term, it is incertae sedis. Therefore, at Template:Taxonomy/Grayenulla, we set |parent=Incertae sedis/Salticinae
. There must then be Template:Taxonomy/Incertae sedis/Salticinae.
If a template with a name of the form "Template:Taxonomy/Incertae sedis/taxon" does not yet exist, a link will walk you through how to create it.
As of January 2017[update], the minimum content of an incertae sedis taxonomy template is of the form:
{{Don't edit this line {{{machine code|}}} | parent = | rank = }}
(The appropriate value for |link=
will be set by default if the 'taxon' name starts with "Incertae sedis".)
For an example of two levels of uncertain placement, see Template:Taxonomy/Xerochlorella.
Taxonomy templates
Taxobox templates
- Which should be used?
- Changing the taxa displayed
- Convert a taxobox to an automated taxobox
- Glossary of automated taxobox parameters
- Automatic taxobox – mainly for genera and higher taxa
- Speciesbox – for a species
- Subspeciesbox – for an animal subspecies
- Infraspeciesbox – for a plant subspecies or variety
- Hybridbox – for an animal hybrid within a genus
- Ichnobox – for a trace fossil
- Oobox – for a fossil egg
- Virusbox – for viruses and non-cellular life
- Paraphyletic group – for concepts that do not correspond to a monophyletic clade
- Population taxobox - for notable populations of subspecies of animals