Talk:Cosmopolitan distribution

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Ecology Low‑importance

	Ecology portal This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Ecology, an effort to create, expand, organize, and improve ecology-related articles.EcologyWikipedia:WikiProject EcologyTemplate:WikiProject EcologyEcology
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the importance scale.

Biology Mid‑importance

	Biology portal Cosmopolitan distribution is part of the WikiProject Biology, an effort to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to biology on Wikipedia. Leave messages on the WikiProject talk page.BiologyWikipedia:WikiProject BiologyTemplate:WikiProject BiologyBiology
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Geography Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Geography, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of geography on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.GeographyWikipedia:WikiProject GeographyTemplate:WikiProject Geographygeography

Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

WikiProject Geography To-do list:

Here are some tasks awaiting attention:

Article requests : See Requested articles/Social sciences/Geography, cities, regions and named places and Missing articles about Locations
Assess : Tag related article talk pages with {{WikiProject Geography}}. To help assess the quality and importance of geography articles, please see: Unassessed geography articles and Unknown-importance geography articles.
Cleanup : See Geography articles needing attention
Deletion sorting : Listed at Geographic related deletion discussions
Geographical coordinates : See Articles missing geocoordinate data by country
Infobox : See Geography articles needing infoboxes
Map : See Wikipedia requested maps
Notability : See Geography articles with topics of unclear notability
Photo : See Wikipedia requested photographs of places
Stubs : See Geography stubs

[Untitled]

I think writers for Wikipedia biology-related articles are entirely too fond of this term. It is a sweeping generalization that should be avoided, imho. The meaning is arbitrary and subjective to the writer; witness this definition page. It seems to mean "we think you can find this (plant or animal) anywhere; that is, we lack geographical distribution data." Nickrz 12:23, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

No, it means "you can find", not "we think you can find". If you think that in some articles it is applied wrongly, please request a citiation. Please remember, "writers for Wikipedia" are not supposed to be "fond of" anything in their writing: they may only quote from reliable sources. And if these sources are "fond of" something, we can do nothing, except of quoting other reputable sources which disagree. `'Míkka 15:51, 10 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unless reliable references are added it will continue to puzzle many readers. It has come a long way from "Cosmopolis" in philosophical writing and usage like Cosmopolitan for a magazine.--Felix Folio Secundus (talk) 06:29, 24 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sperm whale?

The Sperm Whale article suggests that it also has cosmopolitan distribution. Should it be listed here as well? --212.242.167.26 (talk) 14:23, 20 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I also think the Barn Owl should be listed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.36.153.113 (talk) 01:30, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ants?

Why is "Ant" in the list of cosmopolitain species ? "Ant" is not a species, there are thousands of species of ants. Is there any particular ant species found almost everywhere ?Eregli bob (talk) 04:38, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I know. Why is it? 78.150.185.30 (talk) 17:35, 10 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Domesticated animals?

I don't see an obvious reason as to why cats and dogs aren't listed here. They can survive in almost any climate, as far as I know. Something tells me I'm missing something important, which is why I'm asking instead of just doing this myself. Leo-Roy! ^review/gb 02:15, 15 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where the name came from

One potentially good addition to this article would be noting where the term came from.--Rockfang (talk) 18:39, 25 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]

What about “people” as cosmopolitan?

The preamble in the article states “Killer whales (orcas) are among the most well-known cosmopolitan species on the planet” and I wonder if it isn’t Homo sapiens that are. Are people excluded from biogeographic consideration of the term? We’re usually a self-centered species, so why stop here? :) Deuelpm (talk) 13:55, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. Invasive Spices (talk) 20:00, 9 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Humans are already mentioned as a cosmopolitan species further in the article. —Lowellian (reply) 07:37, 13 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Example for diseases with cosmopolitan distribution

I think it would be a good idea to give one or two examples in the "Examples" section. Currently it says that it applies to some diseases but doesn't say which. Nikola M 8421 (talk) 06:00, 8 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]