Talk:Maevarano Formation

message: This article states that Rahonavis was a bird, but it was in fact a flying dromaeosaurid. This should be fixed.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.148.242 (talk) 15:30, 15 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Rahonavis

message: Hey, I noticed the start of a WP:WAR on the Dinosaur section of this article, in which User:Megalotitan and User:75.91.169.61 were involved. 
The 28 of September, 2020, User:Meekororum changed the description of the teeth of "'Stegosaurus'" madagascariensis, to "Possibly an indeterminate ankylosaur", backed by "Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia)", Maidment, Norman, Barrett & Upchurch, Journal of Systematic Paleontology, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1477201908002459.
This paper explicitly says : "It seems likely, therefore, that Stegosaurus madagascariensis is an indeterminate ankylosaur." It must be said, however, that the clade Parankylosauria wasn't known yet.
The 1 of January, 2022, User:75.91.169.61 reverted this, saying "Most likely a parankylosaur", without backing this claim and still citing Maidment et al. This edit was quickly reverted by User:Megalotitan, and that new reversion was again reverted by User:75.91.169.61.
It must be said that the edit of User:75.91.169.61 probably falls in the field of WP:SYNTH, or at least of WP:OR, as the paper used as a citation never mentions Parankylosauria, nor the paper ("Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile", Soto-Acuña et al, Nature, 2021, doi 10.21203/rs.3.rs-821192/v1) establishing Parankylosauria includes in it S. madagascariensis or any teeth taxa coming from Madagascar (as expected, since dinosaur teeth are generally viewed as non-diagnostic in recent literature). Additionally, the Stegouros paper never say that Parankylosaurs are the only ankylosaur lineage from Gondwana - only that Gondwanan ankylosaurs are badly known. Anything else is so far original research. 
Hence, it looks like all the sources say that Stegosaurus madagascariensis is considered by the scientific community as an "indeterminate ankylosaur", as are the words of Maidment 'et al'. Additionally, parankylosaurs are still included into Akylosauria, hence even in the case it would be a parankylosaur it would still be by definition an ankylosaur.
So, I would advise, so far, to keep the so-called Stegosaurus madagascariensis as "indeterminate ankylosaur", until User:75.91.169.61 or somebody else is able to provide a reliable published source on it being explicitly recognized as a parankylosaur. I hope all involved parts understand that this isn't directed towards anyone, I hope to have correctly respected WP:AVOIDEDITWAR and I encourage you to voice all your desapprobation below. Larrayal (talk) 04:28, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: User:Larrayal basically summed up my thought process; there hasn't been anything relevant published that would suggest an identity more specific than a putative ankylosaur for S. madagascarensis (Maidment's team provided the most detailed discussion of it in modern literature from what I could find) and trying to label it as a parankylosaur  under the reason of it being the only established Gondwanan ankylosaur clade would've fallen within WP:SYNTH to my knowledge, especially when there was no input given from the Stegouros description; thus, I believe it should remain as an indeterminate ankylosaur. Perhaps something in the future will confirm or deny this classification (although considering that the two teeth are reportedly lost, low expectations until we perhaps get new material), but for the purposes of Wikipedia I believe this was presumptuous at present. However, it was my error to have neglected to clarify why I reverted the edit, and that definitely came off as crass when that was not my intention. My first response should've also been to move to this page to talk it out. I apologize for potentially escalating this into an edit war, and I hope we can come to a satisfactory agreement with this discussion here. Megalotitan (talk) 05:06, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Start of an easily avoidable edit war over Stegosaurus madagascariensis