Talk:Olive legless lizard

Sources

Although it's not an incredible source, it does include a dense bibliography, which would be worthwhile extracting.

The Reptile Database

SuperTah (talk) 00:32, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

Olive legless lizard vs Patternless delma

I actually came upon this article after looking for an Olive legless lizard article on Wikipedia, which came about after reading about this species in official documents. However, instead, there were two articles with a different common name (Patternless delma). Checking on Google Scholar, it would seem that "Olive legless lizard" has more hits than "Patternless delma" (64 vs 9). There is more robust sourcing for Olive legless lizard, however, the IUCN source is very strong. @Pvmoutside and @Senocular Seb, as both of you created articles on this species (had to redirect your great work Senocular Seb, apologies), is there any additional reasoning to use Patternless delma instead of Olive legless lizard as the preferred common name? SuperTah (talk) 04:44, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

I just checked, both the Reptile Database and the IUCN,the two main sources for English names, refer to Delma inornata as the patternless delma,not olive legless lizard....Pvmoutside (talk) 11:55, 31 March 2023 (UTC)

@Pvmoutside Ah, I should have been clearer and mentioned that I was referring to the IUCN referring to Delma inornata as 'patternless delma' as being very strong support for the common name.

Look, as the Reptile Database is an aggregator like Fossilworks, I wouldn't consider it a robust source, at least for Wikipedia. However, I do find the IUCN result very, very interesting considering that there seems to be 7x the number of published sources for olive legless lizard. Seems weird to me that a literal translation of its Latin name is being preferred- Kluge didn't offer a common name in his 1974 work either.

This may be a regional split, as the Victorian Museum has variants of 'patternless delma', but the sources from NSW, ACT and SA use 'olive legless lizard' or variants thereof. Is there a precedent for this? Honestly I'm still leaning towards Olive legless lizard, but there may be more reason as to why the IUCN prefers patternless legless lizard. SuperTah (talk) 22:22, 1 April 2023 (UTC)

I am no expert by any means, perhaps begin a discussion on the Tree of Life Page? The other thing we can do is change the article name to the scientific name which would eliminate any confusion....Pvmoutside (talk) 15:42, 2 April 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, that's a good place to ask this question. It'd be reasonable, but WP:COMMONNAME is pretty clear. Either one is fine, we should make sure we know which one is more appropriate. SuperTah (talk) 09:01, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

I would go with the name used by the IUCN and Reptile Database. Both will be applying it to the correct species, whereas other sources can be vague as to which species it applies to (if there are similar ones in the area). Other names used include Plain Snake-Lizard, Inornate Legless Lizard, and Patternless Legless Lizard, so perhaps there isn't one common name that meets WP:COMMONNAME, in which case the scientific name makes sense. A quick survey of articles on Delma species finds five using the scientific name, 15 using some form of delma and two using a vernacular name without delma, the Javelin lizard (name used by IUCN and Reptile Database) and the Striped legless lizard (again used IUCN and RD, both with Many-lined delma as an alternative). In short, I'd leave it or move it to the scientific name. —  Jts1882 | talk  11:59, 3 April 2023 (UTC)

@Jts1882 Thanks for the reply, but I have a couple of questions.

Not too sure what you mean by other common names being vague, as 'olive legless lizard' seems to be by far the most frequently referred to common name to Delma inornata. The striped legless lizard shares the range of Delma inornata, however that doesn't stop various Australian sources in referring to Delma inornata as the olive legless lizard. Wouldn't the overwhelming use of one common name still lend preference to that common name?

If anything, that 15 other Wikipedia articles also use common name variants of 'delma' could be a cause of confusion. If the IUCN is the only major reliable source using 'patternless delma', does that weigh up to the many more using 'olive legless lizard'? SuperTah (talk) 05:31, 6 April 2023 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

• Delma inornata observed by Isaac clarey.jpg

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:53, 4 April 2023 (UTC)