Template:Automatic taxobox/doc/Taxonomy templates

Taxon parameter conventions
Taxonomy templates should generally have three parameters, rank, link, and parent.

rank
Use the Latin names for ranks, eg. ordo instead of order. For taxa that have no rank, use unranked. To use the rank of a different taxon, use.

link
This parameter both determines how the taxon is displayed in the taxobox and what it will link to:

taxon

Or, if the link target is different from the display text:

link target

The following scenarios are some that may require the display text to be different from the link target:
 * If the taxon name is more than one word, typically the display text for the taxobox should be abbreviated even though the article title is not. For example the genus name should be abbreviated for binomials and omitted for subgenera, since readers will have enough context to know the name of the genus:
 * Homo sapiens
 * Kermode bear
 * Mus (Coelomys)
 * Broccoli - Note that only some taxa are italicized automatically, so you may need to explicitly italicize the name.
 * If the article name covering the taxon is not the name of the taxon and there is no redirect, perhaps because of ambiguity, the link target will have to be modified to link to the article that does cover the taxon: Mus (genus)
 * Hybrid plants may require an unitalicized cross, such as Taxonomy/Citrus × floridana: Limequat
 * An extinct taxon such as Taxonomy/Tyrannosaurus should be reflected with a † using: true
 * If an article covers several taxa, such as is typically done for monotypic taxa, redirects would be linkified for higher taxa, so the link target for such taxa should not rely on redirects. For example, Taxonomy/Tyrannosaurini contains: Tyrannosaurus

parent
Each parent taxon should begin with a capital letter, and should be named the same as the title of the parent's taxonomy template, see.

Template naming conventions
The title of the Taxonomy template must match the parent parameter of each of its daughter taxa, so it is important to adhere to these conventions.


 * Always use the taxonomic rather than common name. For example, Taxonomy/Ursidae instead of Taxonomy/Bear.
 * For taxonomic names that are longer than one word, such as binomials, do not abbreviate in the title. For example, Taxonomy/Homo sapiens and Taxonomy/Ursus maritimus tyrannus. However, the displayed text in the link parameter should be abbreviated as appropriate; it will normally be displayed in context so readers will be able to tell what the abbreviations stand for.
 * For subgenera, the title should be of the form Genus (Subgenus). For example, Taxonomy/Mus (Coelomys).
 * When conventions call for abbreviated ranks to be included in the name, eg. ternary names, the title of the template should include those as well. For example, Taxonomy/Brassica oleracea var. italica.
 * Hyphenate the terms "stem-group" and "total-group". Use the format "Taxon/stem-group".
 * If two taxa have the same name, use disambiguating parentheses as described at Disambiguation. Typical usage of the word Pterodon in a biological context is almost always about the legume, so Taxonomy/Pterodon describes that genus while the creodont Pterodon is at Taxonomy/Pterodon_(mammal).
 * To display a question mark after the parent taxon, set taxon/?. To display question marks above the parent and grandparent, set taxon/?/?.

"Dummy" taxonomy templates
Sometimes it is useful to have different versions of taxonomy templates for a particular taxon. For example, taxonomic ancestors of Aves include things like Saurischia and Reptilia which are of major rank, so if Template:Taxonomy/Aves descended from them any bird's taxobox would have two class fields and two order fields, which is generally undesirable. This can be solved by having a duplicated taxonomy template with an overridden parent field, enabling birds' ancestor hierarchies, and hence their taxoboxes, to skip non-avian dinosaur taxa. Another example is to override always_display for secondary ranks if it is appropriate to show an ancestor taxon only for a certain group of its descendant taxa.

To override, create a template with the same name as the overridden taxonomy template but with a /description after it. For example, Template:Taxonomy/Physeteroidea/displayed inherits everything from Template:Taxonomy/Physeteroidea except for always_display, which it overrides. Use the Taxon variant to inherit fields from the "real" taxonomy template (this can be prefilled, if you use the correct page naming convention):

true

Other fields, such as parent, can be similarly overridden.

Indeterminate taxa
Where a qualifier (e.g. incertae sedis) is used, the taxon name and the full entry should begin with a capital (see table below). Always refer to the parent by its taxonomic rather than common name.

The second example gives a case where the taxon above "incertae sedis" would otherwise not be displayed. A "dummy taxon" that links to the real taxon, but with true, is set up instead.