Wikipedia:Peer review/White-faced spiny tree-rat/archive1

RoySmith

I did a little copyediting.

• The infobox photo is not very good. I suggest dropping it and either finding something better or perhaps just using File:Echimys chrysurus.tif in the infobox.

  I agree the new image is better, but the side view, even if not super sharp, would improve the description section to avoid a "wall of text" feeling. Splitting long paragraphs also helps. In solidarity, —Femke (talk) 🐦 18:10, 17 July 2026 (UTC)

• It would be good to have a map showing the distribution.
• It is covered in hair and turns from brown to white towards the tip. What does "it" refer to? Do you mean the whole rat, or just the tail?
• The fur near the back of the head is often darker In the lead, you said "darker near the back of the head" without the "often" qualifier. These should be brought into alignment.
• You do a good job of defining technical terms per WP:MTAU, but you could add explanations for arboreal and thermoregulation.
• As an organizational matter, very short sections such Habitat and distribution and Behaviour and ecology are generally frowned upon. But, if these are standard headings for species articles, perhaps it's OK.
• I'm not an expert on this type of article, but I did as Claude if there was anything missing. I can already see that it called out a few things that you do indeed cover, but take a look at https://claude.ai/share/fc0ce251-80dc-4ea1-bd4b-a2e84028ba69 and see if there's anything worth addressing.

Overall, I'm not seeing any major issues. You'll certainly want to get a review from a subject matter expert. Take a look at WP:FA#Animals and invite some recent authors of similar articles to take a look. That's it for me. RoySmith (talk) 15:49, 19 June 2026 (UTC)

@Reconrabbit just want to make sure you saw this. RoySmith (talk) 16:10, 10 July 2026 (UTC)

Apologies, I haven't seen this until just now! I'll take a look. Regarding the information that Claude regards as missing, and sections that appear very short, the answer is that there simply is no information out there about the rodent's social structure and communication, gestation period, breeding season, or lifespan. I'm confused as to what it sees as "missing" - I've clearly defined the strata that the tree-rat occupies in its arboreal habitat, its diet (vague, but only because the literature is also vague), its nocturnal behavior, its litter size, the population trend (stable), its dentition... I have the feeling this is working from a much older revision of the article. -- Reconrabbit (talk) 17:33, 12 July 2026 (UTC)

Ucucha

Overall, a quick look on relevant literature confirms the article is comprehensive; the species is rare and surprisingly poorly known for having been named in 1780.

• Distribution: The verbal description of the range could be clearer. It is also missing the occurrence of the species in Venezuela, which was reported a few years ago (https://doi.org/10.31687/saremNMS.20.0.34). I would say that in Brazil, it is north of the Amazon and east of the Rio Negro, as well as south of the Amazon and east of the Xingu. The current text does not make the extent of its occurrence in Brazil clear.
• Taxonomy: I think it's worth briefly enumerating all three remaining species of Echimys with their distributions to place the species in geographic context. That's E. vieirai south of the Amazon in Brazil (geographically close) and E. saturnus further afield in western Amazonia.
• Ecology: Husson (1978) recorded an instance of predation by the owl Pulsatrix perspicillata.

Other references I checked (send me an email if you need PDFs of these):

• Husson, A.M. 1978. The mammals of Suriname. Zoölogische Monographieën 2:1-569. https://repository.naturalis.nl/pub/535291
  • Not much additional information. Interestingly he calls it Echimys chrysurus chrysurus, implying there is another subspecies, but not sure what that other subspecies would be.
• Voss, R.S., Lunde, D.P. and Simmons, N.B. 2001. The mammals of Paracou, French Guiana: a Neotropical lowland rainforest fauna. Part 2. Nonvolant species. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 263:1-236. URL: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/167750 HDL 2246/386
  • A very nice study of a place within the range of E. chrysurus, but they actually didn't find it. The appendix says there are only 4 known localities of the species in French Guiana.
• Emmons, L.H., Leite, Y.L.R. and Patton, J.L. 2015. Genus _Echimys_ F. Cuvier, 1809. Pp. 893–898 in Patton, J.L., Pardiñas, U.F.J. and D'Elía, G. (eds.). Mammals of South America, Volume 2: Rodents. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1290 pp.
  • Good review. They discuss the fact that some earlier authors considered paleaceus to be a different species, which seems worth mentioning.

Ucucha (talk) 04:06, 15 July 2026 (UTC)

I found a good amount of new, usable information in these references. Besides these notes (distributions of the related species added to Distribution rather than Taxonomy), I've added that E. chrysurus is the type species of its genus, that its cheek teeth are used as a diagnostic trait, its nesting behavior, mammae, and rarity. Thank you for taking the time to review! -- Reconrabbit (talk) 14:27, 17 July 2026 (UTC)