Talk:Charophyceae

source?

Para 4 first sentence came directly from para three of the En wiki article. Their incredibly long sentence was split up here for reasons of readability, but it was assumed that the references at the end of their sentence would be good for our sentences. So have we and they got it wrong? Macdonald-ross (talk) 09:30, 21 September 2014 (UTC)

I think that "Many of the complex plant traits related to sexual reproduction" is a not very helpful way of referring to alternation of generations. The Turmel, Otis, and Lemieux reference shouldn't be used as a citation for such a statement; it is a wonderful piece of work, but it is about sorting out how the Zygnematales fit into the phylogeny (they had seemed to be a discordant element). Unfortunately, for general statements about algae it is usually necessary to cite a textbook, which would not be online and is therefore difficult for wikipedians to check. Also, as I've just been finding with Chlorophyta, it is easy to find over-generalizations online (such as that all Chlorophyta unicells are flagellate). Off-line sources may also contain introductory chapters that make general statements that aren't quite true for every instance, but the assumption there is that the reader will go into the subject in more depth and will come to appreciate the exceptions. Here, our writing task is more difficult. The basic alternation of generations did evolve first in the Charophyceae, but "many of the complex traits related to sexual reproduction" are actually very different in the land plants, even in the Bryophytes. It needs rewording, but reference 1 should be appropriate. Sminthopsis84 (talk) 12:31, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

Well, I think your phrase "The basic alternation of generations did evolve first in the Charophyceae" is a key, and maybe you should put it in the article if it can be sustained. Anyway, thank you for the reply. There are indeed limits to what we can do on these pages. And you can certainly quote printed sources which are not on-line. The overriding obligation of an encyclopedia is to get it right, having on-line sources is just a convenience. However, a page or chapter number in a textbook is always welcome. Macdonald-ross (talk) 14:47, 22 September 2014 (UTC)