Talk:Homotherini

Title of this article

To quote the second sentence of the article: "The tribe is commonly known as scimitar-toothed cats." One might ask why the article is not titled this as per WP:COMMONAME. Regards, William Harris • (talk) • 11:18, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

It also depends on which name is used by most sources. Haven't looked into this one, but a Google scholar, or even regular Google, search could sort it out. Or well, just took a quick look (with "scimitar toothed" in quotes, to leave out results for saber toothed cat), and seems the numbers are in favour of the common name (though it seems many instances use it to refer to Homotherium specifically)... FunkMonk (talk) 13:01, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

We can expect the scientists to have a preference for just the Latin name. However, your "average man in his tree" is not going to do a search for something called "Homotherini" but he will do a search for something called the "scimitar-toothed cat". I am aware that a redirect will bring visitors to this page but WP:COMMONAME is fairly clear on its requirements. Regards, William Harris • (talk) • 05:57, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

WP:Common name says "Common name" in the context of article naming means a commonly or frequently used name, and not necessarily a common name as used in some disciplines in opposition to scientific name", so the scientific name isn't necessarily ruled out, but in this case, yes, it does seem "scimitar toothed" is mostly used in general. We have hundreds of living reptile and plant articles that are placed at the scientific name rather than the common name, so the rules aren't applied evenly, though it seems a bit strange to me in those cases, considering how standardisation-obsessed some people are around here. FunkMonk (talk) 07:44, 6 May 2017 (UTC)

Spelling

FossilWorks says the correct spelling is "Homotheriini" and, truth be told, it makes sense for taxon names derived from -therium (compare with e.g. Pampatheriidae, Chalicotheriinae).--Leptictidium (mt) 14:28, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

Most of the literature I've read that refers to Homotherini uses Homotherini, not Homotheriini. --SilverTiger12 (talk) 12:46, 27 September 2021 (UTC)

Should the title be renamed Machairodontini?

With the recent academic articles that focused on the evolution of saber-tooth cats, a lot of papers seem to be adopting the notion that homotherins are a subset of the machairodontins (such as the 2022 and 2023 papers led by Jiangzuo, as well as the 2024 paper from Chatar et al.), would it be more feasible to have the group be renamed as "Machairodontini" and have Homotherini be redirected? Want to see what everyone's thoughts are on the matter. Piranga94 (talk) 17:20, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

I would prefer to redirect all three tribes to Machairodontinae, following the paleo wikiproject's preference for fewer extraneous clade articles. Especially given the taxonomic uncertainty around the tribes. Happy editing, SilverTiger12 (talk) 21:48, 3 August 2025 (UTC)

That actually sounds like a much better idea for sure. Piranga94 (talk) 21:49, 3 August 2025 (UTC)