''Ardenna'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s in the family

Procellariidae The family (biology), family Procellariidae is a group of seabirds that comprises the fulmarine petrels, the gadfly petrels, the diving petrels, the prion (bird), prions, and the shearwaters. This family is part of the bird order (biology), orde ...

. These medium-sized to large

shearwater Shearwaters are medium-sized long-winged seabirds in the petrel family Procellariidae. They have a global marine distribution, but are most common in temperate and cold waters, and are pelagic outside the breeding season. Description These tube ...

species were formerly included in the genus ''

Puffinus ''Puffinus'' is a genus of seabirds in the order Procellariiformes that contains about 20 small to medium-sized shearwaters. Two other shearwater genera are named: '' Calonectris'', which comprises three or four large shearwaters, and '' Ardenna ...

''.

Taxonomy

A phylogenetic analysis using

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

published in 2004 found that ''Puffinus'' contained two distinct clades and was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage that includes organisms with mixed evolutionary origin but does not include their most recent common ancestor. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as Homoplasy, homoplasies ...

, with ''Puffinus'' more closely related to ''

Calonectris ''Calonectris'' is a genus of seabirds. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek ''kalos'', "good" and ''nectris'', "swimmer". The genus comprises four large shearwaters. There are two other shearwater genera, ''Puffinus'', which comprises 21 sm ...

'' than to ''Ardenna''. To create

monophyletic In biological cladistics for the classification of organisms, monophyly is the condition of a taxonomic grouping being a clade – that is, a grouping of organisms which meets these criteria: # the grouping contains its own most recent co ...

genera a group of species were moved into ''Ardenna'', a genus that had been introduced in 1853 by

Ludwig Reichenbach Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (8 January 1793 – 17 March 1879) was a German botanist, ornithologist and illustrator. It was he who first requested Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Leopold Blaschka to make a set of glass marine invertebrate m ...

with the

great shearwater The great shearwater (''Ardenna gravis'') is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. It breeds colonially on rocky islands in the south Atlantic. Outside the breeding season it ranges widely in the Atlantic. Taxonomy The great s ...

as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

. Reichenbach cites the Italian naturalist

Ulisse Aldrovandi Ulisse Aldrovandi (11 September 1522 – 4 May 1605) was an Italian naturalist, the moving force behind Bologna's botanical garden, one of the first in Europe. Carl Linnaeus and the comte de Buffon reckoned him the father of natural history stud ...

who in 1603 used the spelling "Artenna" for a seabird. Recent genomic studies have validated the phylogenetic distinction between ''Ardenna'' and ''Puffinus'', though this study finding ''Ardenna'' rather than ''Puffinus'' being closer to ''Calonectris''.

Species

Extant

The genus contains seven extant species as shown below:

Extinct

The genus contains five extinct species as shown below:

Phylogeny

Phylogeny based on a study by Joan Ferrer Obiol and collaborators published in 2022.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q16529941 Bird genera * Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach