Obviously I'm speculating a bit, but I noticed this sentence in a
recent article in The Age, about a death from the Eastern Brown Snake,
in Australia:
"It is possibly the second-most venomous land snake in the world after
the inland taipan, which is also an Australian snake."
Our article on the snake has this sentence:
"The Eastern Brown Snake is the second most venomous land snake in the
world after the Inland Taipan.[1] "
I wonder if the principle here is that if you don't want to admit
you're sourcing from Wikipedia, you just add "possibly" :) Even when,
interestingly enough, we actually had a source for that sentence:
Steve Irwin's website :)
Steve