Wiki Project Palaeontology - Single-species Articles

Single-species Articles

Users sometimes wonder whether it is necessary to create a separate article for every species in a genus.

In the case of monospecific genera, the usual guideline is to create a single article at the genus page. For example, an article exists at Saadanius and a redirect at Saadanius hijazensis.

In the case of genera that contain multiple species, a degree of common sense is necessary. Wikipedia:MERGE lists three reasons that it may be appropriate to combine the species into a single page:

• There may be a substantial overlap in the content of the articles (for instance, if the species are found in the same locality and are morphologically and biologically very similar);
• There may be very little text that can be written about individual species (if a species is very similar to others in its genus, a page may simply read "Orthoconus grandi is a species of Orthoconus whose shell is greater than 2 mm in height").
• It may be necessary to have context from a broader article in order for readers to understand the species' context. For instance, the phylogenetic context of Halkieria requires lengthy explanation, so in this instance it is appropriate to have multiple genera in a single article.

If it is not appropriate to create a separate page for each species, species pages can be redirected to a genus page. If there is enough text to make it suitable, each species may have a separate section on the genus page; see Halkieria for an example. If a single species eventually generates enough content to warrant its own page, then this page can be created; but other species should only be split from the main article when their existence can be substantiated.