Talk:Xenicus

Proposed merge of Pachyplichas into Xenicus

An ancient DNA study from 2016 determined that Pachyplichas is nested within Xenicus. Although thus study is cited several times on relevant Wikipedia articles, seven years on the revised taxonomy has not been fully implemented on Wikipedia. I was able to access the full text through the Wikipedia library. The discuss section of the study unequivocally confirms that Traversia is a distinct genus (which is good on Wikipedia), while Pachyplichas is a synonym of Xenicus. The study specifically states, "that Pachyplichas jagmi Millener 1988 and Pachyplichas yaldwyni Millener 1988 become Xenicus jagmi and Xenicus yaldwyni, respectively."

I recommend merging Pachyplichas into Xenicus, then determining what clean-up is appropriate for New Zealand wren and other articles. On a related note, I believe that the species pair North Island stout-legged wren and South Islands stout-legged wren should only be represented by a single article. Although the aforementioned study doesn't question their validity as distinct species, both Wikipedia articles are currently stubs. (Consider the articles for the New Zealand goose and adzebills. In each case, only one article represents a genus containing two recently extinct species. I suppose there’s not enough information to talk about to merit splitting the articles on the species level.) Columbianmammoth (talk) 07:40, 4 November 2023 (UTC)