Talk:Pennatomys/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: J Milburn (talk) 22:39, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Feel free to tell me to go away, but you're good to work with, write well and write interesting articles. As such, I'll review this too. J Milburn (talk) 22:39, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks; looking forward to your review. This one is likely to be my next FAC. Ucucha 22:52, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Samuel Turvey and coworkers" seems an odd phrase. Perhaps explain who Turvey is? List the "coworkers"?
- Zoologist, added. I'd prefer not to list the other authors (they're in the reference list and the taxobox, though); long lists of names aren't especially relevant to Pennatomys.
"only occurring on islands" Which islands? Any islands?
- The Galápagos, Fernando de Noronha, Tres Marías, Jamaica, Lesser Antilles. It doesn't especially matter which islands; the point is that clade D (with ~30 living species) contains >10 island endemics, whereas there are only a few among the >400 other species of Sigmodontinae.
"bears week crests" I assume you mean "bears weak crests"?
- Oops.
"toothrows" Can that be a single word? OED Online doesn't know it.
- It's always written as one word in the literature.
Why do you put "Nectomys subclade" in quotes all the time?
- No good reason; removed.
I take it there is nothing that can be said about any part of the animal other than the skull?
- They did get some postcranial bones, but didn't describe them.
  - Annoying. Perhaps mention that some other bones have been found? J Milburn (talk) 14:34, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
"Amerindian" Link?
- Linked in an earlier section.
In "Range and history", could we have links to the ages and locations?
- I linked the places, but don't see much of a point in linking the ages; no one reading this article is going to be helped much by the knowledge that there was a revolt in the Byzantine Empire in 790.
"George Percy reported on the presence of "great store of Conies" on Nevis around 1606," What are Conies?
- "A term of endearment for a woman", according to the OED. It is originally a term for rabbits, but was also applied to other kind-of-similar animals, like hyraxes (in the KJV, apparently) and American rodents such as hutias (cf. Jamaican Coney), agoutis, and guinea pigs.
"respectively Saint Kitts and Nevis," I've never seen "respectively" used before the listed items
- Changed.
Category:Monotypic mammal genera? Category:Extinct mammals? Category:Fauna of the Lesser Antilles is perhaps appropriate, perhaps not as the species is extinct- your call.
- All added.

As you're hoping to take this to FAC, here are a few more thoughts-

I'm personally interested by the human side of things- any more on those rats being eaten? Any theory as to why the species is now extinct?
- Turvey et al. (2010) don't say much on specifically this species, but make some general points, which I've added.
There's no mention of what they may have eaten. Possibly a related point, the thought about them being semi-aquatic is interesting; Do the authors make the jump and suggest that this species is semi-aquatic? What does this tell us? Are we talking fresh water or salt water?
- They actually say West Indian rice rats were probably not semiaquatic; the morphology of Megalomys suggests it was arboreal. Living semiaquatic oryzomyines such as the marsh rice rat will enter salt water, though—which is unlikely to have put them at a disadvantage for colonizing oceanic islands.
  - Anything reliable sources have hypothesised about the species' behaviour/the way it would live would be a great addition to the article. As I say, this was just a thought for pushing towards FAC, so I'm not gonna hold back GA status on the issue. J Milburn (talk) 14:34, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
How big is a "medium-sized oryzomyine"?
- The source isn't any more specific. The toothrow measurement suggests it was slightly bigger than Sigmodontomys aphrastus, which reaches a head-and-body length of ~150 mm—but quite a bit smaller than Lundomys (the largest living oryzomyine), with an average HBL of 193 mm. Ucucha 14:13, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Generally great, as usual. Sources good, no stability or image problems. I'm gonna place it on hold for now. J Milburn (talk) 23:14, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the detailed review! Ucucha 14:13, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Everything I thought needed dealing with before GA status has been dealt with, so I'm happy to promote. I've left some more quick thoughts above to have a think about with a view to FA status (and, as ever, a picture would be a great addition, but I appreciate the difficulty), but I'm happy to promote now. Nice work, and good luck! J Milburn (talk) 14:34, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]