User talk:Christopher

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Tubulina or Tubulinea?

Hi Christopher

I'm not sure if it should be Tubulina or Tubulinea. The Wikipedia page has Tubulinea. I am in no way an expert on this, so I trust your judgement and knowledge re the correct and taxon name--M alan kazlev 16:25, 1 October 2006 (PDT)

I believe I've also seen both, but not having the appropriate references onhand, I can't recall why I used Tubulina, or even if I had a proper reason - Tubulina may have simply been the name used in the most recent reference I checked.
In regards to the phylogeny pages, again I'm adding them away from home, which is why I'm generally simply loading bare phylogenies without background info. I may fill in some gaps once I'm home and have the papers back onhand - or I may simply rely on the kindness of strangers in that regard. A few whacking great caveats: some of my phylogenies are pretty idiosyncratic (I generally use the most recent or the one with the most complete taxon coverage - which may not necessarily be the best), and I give a kind of consensus tree showing a single version rather than separate trees for separate topologies as Mikko Haaramo does. I have known cases where my attempts to reconcile completely opposing topologies has resulted in something that no-one would ever consider. I've also willfully misused names (see Exoflagellata and Variosea for two cases where a taxon as originally defined has turned out to be paraphyletic and I've broadened the name to include all daughter taxa as well, probably destroying the author's original intention) and sometimes twisted a phylogeny shown in the source paper to allow certain taxa (families, genera, etc.) to appear monophyletic when I felt that their para-/polyphyly was not sufficiently proven. General summation - don't believe a word I say.--Christopher
Having relooked at Smirnov et al., Tubulina is an older name that was more or less equivalent to Tubulinea. I'm not a fan of name-changes to give all taxa at a single "rank" the same ending, or other such changes for the sake of form, which was why I'd intially retained Tubulina. I've given in to the majority since, to use Tubulinea.--Christopher Taylor 08:49, 5 April 2007 (Perth)

Some Requests

You don't happen to have the dendrograms for Cervidae, Cheiruidae/Deiphon, Petalocrinus, or Crotalocrinus?--Stanton 21:20, 27 November 2006 (PST)

Cervidae and subsidiary pages are now up--Christopher Taylor 19:56, 6 December 2006 (Perth)
Better pages up for Petalocrinus and Crotalocrinites (yep, that's the correct name - Crotalocrinus is a nomen vanum)--Christopher Taylor 21:25, 7 January 2007 (Perth)
I could have sworn that stupid book said -crinus and not -crinites--Stanton 12:57, 7 January 2007 (PST)
According to Lane (1978) in the Treatise, early workers on crinoids often coined named ending in -crinites, the suffix -ites indicating a fossil. In 1836, Louis Agassiz emended all names ending in -crinites to -crinus. Almost all authors followed Agassiz' lead until the correct original spellings were restored from 1938 onwards.--Christopher Taylor 22:28, 14 January 2007 (Perth)
Also, got any information on Mene?--Stanton 23:08, 16 February 2007 (PST)
Yes, it's the first two words in "Mene mene tekel upharsin". I'll see what I can find. Those giraffoid pages are coming, it's just taking me a while to work through Maglio & Cooke (1978 - Evolution of African Mammals)--Christopher Taylor 21:20, 17 February 2007 (Perth)
Sorry, I meant the type genus of the family Menidae.--Stanton 13:39, 17 February 2007 (PST)
I know you did. My reply was what one calls "being facetious"--Christopher Taylor 08:23, 18 February 2007 (Perth)
Finally got the Menidae up there. Mene maculata is the living species, by the way--Christopher Taylor 14:51, 27 May 2007 (Perth)

Dendrogram

Hi christopher How do you load dendrograms?--Fang 23 20:26, 24 March 2007 (PDT)

I write them in. I've got a Word document that I simply cut and paste from, then edit for format. The info in the Word document I enter from references by hand.--Christopher Taylor 11:44, 25 March 2007 (Perth)

Alveolata

Hi Christopher

In order to have all the material about Alveolata on the same page (makes it less confusing), I've merged the Alveolata references (with a redirect from the old page) and simplified the template. But I'm not sure what to do with Alveolata phylogeny, because there seem to be some minor differences between the dendrograms on the two pages. Anyway I'll leave it with you; if you want to keep the two versions, or delete or redirect the Alveolata phylogeny page. M alan kazlev 18:58, 2 August 2007 (PDT)

Sorted. Christopher Taylor 11:16, 3 August 2007 (Perth)

Compliment :)

Nothing constructive, I just wanted to say that you're doing an amazing job as literally the only contributor in the last month or more. My hat is off to you! User:Paul 4 March 2008.

And here I was considering quitting because I seemed to be the last to leave a sinking ship. Maybe I'll keep going a little longer.Christopher 14:11, 4 March 2008 (PST)

linguistic support

Hi Christopher, it seems you are currently the only person adding new material to paleos.org. I'm from Germany an not that familiar with English language, so would you be so kind, if not too busy, to check the language in my recent additions? Feel free to make edits concerning grammar and/or orthography. I'm often not sure about the correct phrasing.

Thanks, --Zidane 08:43, 21 May 2008 (PDT)

I'd be glad to help. Thanks a lot for all your additions.Christopher 17:59, 21 May 2008 (PDT)

My contributions

I’ve written about Darwin, about Origin of Species etc. Please tell me if that is what you want here. I think it’s good to have a bit of history. It looks so silly that 21st century creationists are redoing arguments that were settled in the 19th Century. Readers should know. Proxima Centauri 03:27, 27 July 2008 (PDT)

It looks good to me - we need more of the general background theory and history. Thanks for all your work!Christopher 03:32, 27 July 2008 (PDT)

Is this computer slow

Is it? Proxima Centauri 05:49, 14 October 2008 (PDT)

Hi

Glad to see you. I've sent you an email. Proxima Centauri 09:57, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Suggestion

First of all we apparenty share a complusion for taxonomy and a fascination for how things (organisms) are phylogenetically arranged. You obviously put alot of work and thought into your dendrograms. I do have some suggestions however,if I may.

Do away with the I.s. (insertu sedis, if I have my Latin right) since the taxa listed are somewhat or a random sampling, or list them at the end as an after reference. This would make the connected phylogenies more concise. Also, limit the taxonomic ranks (levls) to only two or three,e.g. class and order, or class, orde, and family. If nothing else this might make your endeavors a little easier. Otherwise, keep it up.

I'm working on some more cephalopod articles and on trying to reduce red-letter links. Also I have some stuff on forams on the back burner.

Have fun with your spiders Regards, John p.s. you may respond, if you care to , on my talk page.User talk: John M

"Incertae sedis". I'll take your suggestion about moving these listings to the end of the page - I've done this previously on some of the more horrible pages. Thanks for the comments. Christopher 05:48, 18 January 2009 (UTC)

Translation

Someone wants to translate Palaeos into Dutch. Proxima Centauri 15:01, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

I'm afraid I don't know if I can say anything about that. I don't think there's anything stopping them.Christopher 22:32, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Protection

I'd appreciate it if you'd protect the new articles yourself today. I've been very busy dealing with a troll on Liberapedia and a schoolboy on Atheism wiki. The schoolboy makes useful contributions but I have to correct schoolboy mistakes. Proxima Centauri 14:12, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

The tongue as a tentacle

Opinions? Proxima Centauri 14:48, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

Upload

Do you know how to upload this? Proxima Centauri 07:48, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

help

How can Vsotvep help? Proxima Centauri 11:39, 1 July 2009 (UTC)

Welcome

I've created

Welcome to Palaeos!

Welcome to Palaeos. We hope that you will enjoy browsing and editing this site.

  • Please feel free to help us improve our existing articles, or you create an article as long as it is relevant enough.
  • Please click on this link if at any point you want upload an image.

which is adapted from Liberapedia and I replaced blue with green to suggest life. Is it OK for this Wiki? Proxima Centauri 09:20, 8 August 2009 (EDT)

I think it'd look good on the front page. I'd be sparing about how many pages you use it on, though - too many, and it may become obtrusive. Christopher 00:12, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Offline

I'm offline mostly at the moment as my computer is at a repair shop. You and John Stanton will have to look after the wiki. Proxima Centauri 14:52, 14 September 2009 (UTC)

I'm online for now but the computer will probably need to go back to the repair. Proxima Centauri 08:10, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

My computer's OK now, how's my edit to Galliformes? How's Columbiformes? Proxima Centauri 17:00, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Dragonflies and Caddisflies

Are Ordonata and Trichoptera related? Are the similarities analogous or homologous? Proxima Centauri 12:38, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Have you got the right two orders? I can't think of any similarities between Odonata and Trichoptera - they're very different insects. Odonata are dragonflies, the adults are palaeopterous (they can't fold their wings backwards flat over the abdomen) and they're direct developers (nymphs rather than larvae, and no pupal stage). Trichoptera are caddisflies, the adults look rather like small moths (which are their closest relatives), and they're indirect developers with a caterpillar-like larva and pupa. Relationshipwise, they're also very separate - Odonata were one of the first groups of insects to diverge, while Trichoptera are part of the Holometabola clade (insects with a larval stage) with moths and flies. Christopher 13:47, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

I'm not an expert but I can't tell the adults apart, see Caddisflies have four wings like dragonflies and both have larvae that develop in water. Proxima Centauri 14:28, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

The great majority of insects have four wings (only a few lineages have reduced the number to two). As I said, the aquatic stage for dragonflies is a nymph (legs, etc., with no fundamental tissue rearrangement between nymph and adult), while that of caddisflies is caterpillar-like. Aquatic young are also found in Plecoptera (stoneflies), Ephemeroptera (mayflies) and Megaloptera (dobsonflies), among others. Christopher 23:09, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

If Paleos goes down again

We need somewhere to contact each other if we can't find this wiki. Proxima Centauri 09:20, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Great to see you back, can you promote sysops? I’ve recommended Andreas and he would like to be an administrator. Proxima Centauri 08:45, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, the sysops promotion is nothing to do with me. - Christopher 11:29, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

The rubbish you reverted happens at least once a day now. Proxima Centauri 08:52, 26 November 2009 (UTC)

Deuterostomia taxonomy

They spammed Deuterostomia taxonomy hours after you deleted it so I copied the article from Palaeos to prevent that happening again. You're an expert,do you feel like looking over the article and improving it? I've just spent hours improving an article that an amateur economist wrote in Liberaedia and I'm tired. Proxima Centauri 14:03, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

I'm no expert but I took and bashed it into WikiMedia format. Andreas 14:36, 1 December 2009 (UTC)

Blocking spammers

They never come back twice with the same IP adress. Perhaps if we keep blocking them they'll finally run out of adresses, frankly I block them when I feel like it and leave them when I don't. Proxima Centauri 03:15, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

Please check

Please check the accuracy of what I wrote in Apomorphy and Taxon Proxima Centauri 08:57, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

I protected Eubacteria characteristics because of a problem Andreas is having with an unregistered user. I assume Andreas knows more than that bunch of numbers but perhaps an expert with administrative rights can ensure the article is OK. Proxima Centauri 21:29, 20 December 2009 (UTC)

My computer's causing problems yet again

The computer is going away for repairs tomorrow and you will have to look after this wiki alone for some time, sorry. Proxima Centauri 14:11, 29 December 2009 (UTC)

Patrol

I don't know enough to patrol this or this. Proxima Centauri 18:21, 8 January 2010 (UTC)

Calabrian looks like senseless vandalism to me but I think an expert should check before deleting and blocking starts. Proxima Centauri 17:49, 9 January 2010 (UTC)

New users

User:Jcwf would appreciate help from experts. Proxima Centauri 19:28, 10 January 2010 (UTC)


What’s this user about? Proxima Centauri 19:11, 2 February 2010 (UTC)

Move Palaeos

We need to consider moving Palaeos to save the Wiki, see User talk:Proxima Centauri#Spam. Proxima Centauri 19:30, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

How do you feel about moving? I don't want to start anything as you and John Stanton are more closely ivolved with this wiki than I am. Proxima Centauri 12:10, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

I don't see how it would make a difference, to be honest - wouldn't the spammers turn up at any address? Christopher 12:12, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Other wikis have better spam filters so the spammers can’t cause problems, I’m an administrator on several Wikia wikis and spam isn’t a problem on any of them. There’s occasional spam but it doesn’t turn up every day.

Mainly I’m concerned that the owner of this wiki won’t pay to renew it and the wiki will suddenly vanish from cyberspace with all the work we’ve done simply lost. Old Liberapedia, see the Wikiindex entry for Old Liberapedia as that wiki disappeared from cyberspace, Liberapedia survived and our work wasn’t lost because we moved the wiki.

Wikia gives free hosting and good software but there is no control over the advertisements they force onto us. Other Wiki farms are more academically orientated and may suit Palaeos better.

We all recommended that Andreas should be sysoped over a month ago and nothing happened. That’s why I’m worried that the site owner has abandoned Palaeos. Proxima Centauri 16:42, 11 February 2010 (UTC)

Andreas and I both want to move Palaeos, see User talk:Andreas#Move Palaeos. Is there a consensus for a move? Do I contact Wikia? Do you prefer an alternative Wiki farm or a different type of hosting? Proxima Centauri 10:56, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

I’m very much under pressure from spammers, I’ve had hardly any free time today because I’m afraid to leave the computer while spammers are active. I’m now paying to use a public computer because I have an appointment with my doctor that I can’t easily miss. Unless the spam stops we must do something urgently to move Palaeos. Proxima Centauri 15:00, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

As I'm not one of the site's owners, I've got no control over moving one way or another, sorry. Christopher 22:27, 22 March 2010 (UTC)

Ajuk moved LIberapedia withouty being a site owner, see Old Liberapedia. If you have no objection I'll contact Wikia. Proxima Centauri 03:13, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Alan is one of the owners right? Have you tried e-mailing (akazlev (at) bigpond (dot) com) him? Andreas 08:16, 23 March 2010 (UTC)

Abbreviations in page titles

The link to Goodenia sect. Eugoodenia doesn't work, probably because of the period. Andreas 12:07, 16 February 2010 (UTC)

Patrol

Please patrol this I don't know enough. Proxima Centauri 16:35, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Someone deleting a big chunk of text and leaving broken markup behind is pretty clearly vandalism. Please ban the perpetrator. Andreas 16:52, 26 February 2010 (UTC)

Please patrol this I don't know enough. Proxima Centauri 08:37, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

I'm no palaeoclimatologist, but from very cursory research y'dy the revision appears to be correct. Andreas 10:00, 3 March 2010 (UTC)

Science fiction

I’m planning to develop The Aliens of the Flaming Red Sun and introduce an alien plant/animal that photosynthesises like Kelp but reproduces like, Tunicata. I imagine there is a dispersal stage when baby organisms have rudimentary sense organs and rudimentary brains, the babies swim till they find a suitable place to settle, then they lose their brains and their animal senses and become sedentary plants. These alien plant/animals are, I imagine the ancestors of all animal life on the planet in a similar way to the way that Tunicta are the ancestors of all higher Chordates and Vertebrates on Earth. The difference between my imaginary Kelp and the Tunicta is that adult Tunicta feed like animals while my imaginary organisms photosynthesise in the adult stage. Do you have opinions? Proxima Centauri 15:08, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

The only point I'd bring up is that mobile larvae of sessile organisms such as tunicates don't necessarily have 'rudimentary' sense organs; in fact, they often have sense organs up the wazoo because their sole goal in life is to find a suitable spot to settle down. Compare the male deep-sea anglerfish which doesn't feed itself before finding a female to mate with/parasitise, and is basically a pair of nostrils with fins. Christopher 23:44, 31 May 2010 (UTC)

EmmaWatson

Does User:EmmaWatson3bc understand what this site is about? Perhaps we need to watch her. Proxima Centauri 19:30, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

No way of knowing as yet. See what they do next.Christopher 12:47, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Latin What do we do with this Latin scholar, another User:EmmaWatson87? Proxima Centauri 17:57, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

Yet another page turned up and I've told the lady unless she does any palaeontology I'll delete the pages. I feel I've been patient long enough. Do you have alternative suggestions? Proxima Centauri 13:37, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Sounds appropriate to me.Christopher 09:01, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

Looks like we've got another load of spammers, commiserations. Proxima Centauri 11:56, 9 February 2011 (UTC)

Spammers

We're all busy with them daily now, I wish they'd find something better to do. Proxima Centauri 09:20, 20 March 2011 (UTC)

I suspect that it might be bots, not even actual people. I don't have any idea what can be done about it, unfortunately. Christopher 08:58, 21 March 2011 (UTC)

You're back

I see you've been watching the wiki, you returned as soon as that vandal came. Proxima Centauri 23:44, 4 June 2012 (PDT)

Why are you deleting so much?

Why are you deleting so much? Proxima Centauri 05:35, 25 August 2012 (PDT)

I'm removing stuff that I've put up that I'm no longer maintaining (and haven't been for some time). I'm only removing bare taxa lists, not any descriptive text, and I'm not removing anything that anyone else has picked up and kept working on. Christopher 08:15, 25 August 2012 (PDT)
Is this site valuable? The site went down for a few days recently and I assumed Palaeos didn't think it worth paying for. You can move to hosting like Wikia where you must put up with advertisements but don't need to pay. I'll protect the wiki from vandalism and spam as long as it's up but I don't mind if the site goes down. I haven't worked at the main Palaeos site because most of my experience is with wikis and there's plenty of other wiki work for me to do. Proxima Centauri 10:53, 2 October 2012 (PDT)
I'm afraid that the site has not lived up to its original intent, as it has not managed to attract enough contributors. I don't think the original idea was misguided, but çest la vie. Christopher

Deletion

Why do you delete so much? I fear you're damaging the wiki. Proxima Centauri 06:24, 23 February 2013 (PST)

Retrieved from "http://www.palaeos.org/User_talk:Christopher"
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