Category talk:Chordates

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Latest comment: 6 years ago by Metaknowledge in topic RFDO discussion: May–July 2017
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RFDO discussion: May–July 2017

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The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for deletion/Others (permalink).

This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.


In all languages but English, this exists only to hold Category:Vertebrates, and even for English, this is its only subcategory. Moreover, Category:Vertebrates also has Category:Animals as a parent, which makes this intermediate category quite useless. As for English, it contains names of chordates that aren't vertebrates, but maybe they can be subdivided into several subspecies, or be placed in Category:en:Fish.

Speaking of Category:Fish, it's currently a child of Category:Vertebrates, which is obviously inaccurate. Sharks are chordates but not vertebrates. Perhaps if we properly sorted out Category:Fish then Category:Chordates would not be so pointless anymore. —CodeCat 17:55, 25 May 2017 (UTC)Reply

As I've mentioned elsewhere, some of the facts you state here aren't true. There are Portuguese entries for non-vertebrate chordates and I'm sure most of the major world languages have terms for them (see, for instance, w:nl:Zakpijpen), but marine biology isn't a priority for most editors. Tunicates are chordates, but not fish. Sharks are vertebrates- their vertebrae are made of cartilage, but they're vertebrae. Only hagfish could be considered fish but not vertebrates, and there are recent DNA studies that suggest they're really vertebrates that have lost their vertebrae. More to the point, "Fish" is a polyphyletic taxon with marginal taxonomic validity: it includes the closest living relatives of the tetrapods and much more distantly-related taxa, so to be taxonomically correct it would have to include the tetrapods. As a taxonomically-invalid category, we shouldn't be worried about a minor exception to it (if it is one). Even if we were, that would mean Category:Chordates would be the best parent category, unless we were to create a category for craniates- and that would only include fish and tetrapods. There aren't a lot of non-vertebrate chordates, but it's nice not to have them lost in Category:Animals- so Keep. Chuck Entz (talk) 18:36, 29 May 2017 (UTC)Reply
a colony of golden star tunicates
After a few hours work, I've been able to expand the English category to 30 entries- most of which were already there, but not categorized. And, just in case anyone doubts me when I say tunicates aren't fish, here's a picture. Chuck Entz (talk) 21:23, 29 May 2017 (UTC)Reply
Keep per Chuck. Andrew Sheedy (talk) 18:53, 29 May 2017 (UTC)Reply
Keep, which I had already said when you proposed this in RFM. It's bad form to post this stuff in multiple fora with the same aims. —Μετάknowledgediscuss/deeds 17:34, 8 June 2017 (UTC)Reply