Talk:Red algae

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[edit] Number of species

This page should say how many species are in this phylum. --Savant13 20:27, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

The number was already there, on the first line in the "Species" section, although now someone has added a (substantially different) number to first sentence of the article. -R. S. Shaw 19:19, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I don't know where either of these numbers are now, I don't think I deleted either! However I have now added the number "5000 - 6000" Hope this is OK Osborne 15:50, 12 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Merge with Red alga

Rather than use the "move" tab at the top of the article, a month or two ago someone copied the text of Red alga and pasted it into Red algae. Since then various edits have been done to both of these now-separate articles. They need to be merged back together (finding and moving the changes of one into the other, then redirecting one).

Which title should survive seems a bit contentious. My vote would be for the "algae" form because it is the commonly used name. I think that overrides the fact that it is plural rather than singular. -R. S. Shaw 03:23, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Thank you for making sense of this. I agree that a move to Red algae would be in order (there is currently a redirect from Red Algae to Red alga), so Red algae would be the article and Red alga the redirect. As to the use of the plural form, I'm not a biologist, but as an editor, the plural form makes more sense since most of the statements in the article are about algae in the aggregate. Sunray 18:26, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

Since your proposal has been there for a week and all those who have commented agree, we might as well proceed. Do you want to do the honors? Sunray 06:20, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Or I can do it if you like. Sunray 20:09, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

I've done it. Not much change, actually. I noticed the current article doesn't mention the singular form, alga. Maybe it should. -R. S. Shaw 20:59, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Why is the topic "Red tide" included under the "See Also?" There appears to be no disclaimer anywhere that Red Tides are caused by Dinoflagellates, not by Red Algae, just this option to move from the Rhodophyta to another phylum without a reason for doing so. This is misleading.

I've added a note to reflect your concern. I do think that it is good to have a link to "Red tide" as many non-biologist types may be interested to know that they are different. Please check the note to make sure I've got it right. Sunray 18:22, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

It should be a "Note: Red Tides are caused by Dinoflagellates and not by Red Algae," not a "See Also," as this latter implies additional information on the correct topic. However, if your topic is the Rhodophyta, "Red Tides" is NOT additional information, it is spurious information. Correcting misinformation or pointing out difficulties in vernacular nomenclature that confuses the layman is always useful. This is also why it would be clearer to title the articles by their scientific names rather than their common names, Rhodophyta over Red Algae as an example. "Algae" may mean only the eukaryotic photosynthetic protists. But it also may include the photosynthetic bacteria. It is not a scientific term and lends itself to confusion. Rhodophyta, on the other hand, describes a specific monophyletic group of eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms that share a common origin. KP