Petrels are tube-nosed

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

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

order

Procellariiformes Procellariiformes is an order (biology), order of seabirds that comprises four family (biology), families: the albatrosses, the Procellariidae, petrels and shearwaters, and two families of storm petrels. Formerly called Tubinares and still call ...

Description

Petrels are a

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 ...

group of marine seabirds, sharing a characteristic of a nostril arrangement that results in the name "tubenoses". Petrels encompass three of the four extant families within the Procellariiformes order, namely

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 ...

(fulmarine petrels, gadfly petrels, diving petrels, prions, and shearwaters), Hydrobatidae (northern storm petrels), and Oceanitidae (austral storm petrels). The remaining family in Procellariiformes is the albatross family, Diomedeidae.

Etymology

The word ''petrel'' (first recorded in that spelling 1703) comes from earlier (''ca.'' 1670) ''pitteral''; the English explorer William Dampier wrote the bird was so called from its way of flying with its feet just skimming the surface of the water, recalling

Saint Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the Jewish Christian#Jerusalem ekklēsia, e ...

's walk on the sea of Galilee (Matthew xiv.28); if so, it likely was formed in English as a diminutive of Peter (< Old (?) < Late < Late < < = "stone").

Known species

All the members of the order are exclusively

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean and can be further divided into regions by depth. The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or water column between the sur ...

in distribution—returning to land only to breed. The family

is the main radiation of medium-sized true petrels, characterised by united nostrils with medium septum, and a long outer functional primary feather. It is dominant in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the world ocean, generally taken to be south of 60th parallel south, 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is the seco ...

s, but not so in the Northern Hemisphere. It includes a number of petrel groups, the relationships between which have finally been resolved to satisfaction. * The fulmarine petrels: seven species of surface predators and filter feeders, breed in high latitudes but migrate along cool currents to the north. All but ''Fulmarus'' are essentially confined to the south, ''Fulmarus'' apparently colonised the Northern Hemisphere during the Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

. ** The huge giant petrels, genus ''Macronectes'', which are convergent with the albatrosses ** The true fulmars, genus ''Fulmarus'' ** Antarctic petrel ''Thalassoica antarctica'' ** Cape petrel ''Daption capense'' **

Snow petrel The snow petrel (''Pagodroma nivea'') is the only member of the genus ''Pagodroma.'' It is one of only three birds that have been seen at the Geographic South Pole, along with the Antarctic petrel and the south polar skua, which has the most s ...

''Pagodroma nivea'' * The prions: A specialised group of a few very numerous species, all southern. They have a small, fulmar-like form and mostly filter-feed on zooplankton. ** '' Pachyptila'', the prions proper * The procellariine petrels, larger or mid-sized species feeding on fish and molluscs which are fairly close to the prions: ** '' Procellaria'' ** '' Bulweria'' * Shearwaters: There are numerous species in several genera with a medium number of species. ** '' Calonectris'' ** '' Puffinus'', which is two rather distinct groups of larger and smaller species ** '' Pseudobulweria'' ** Kerguelen petrel ''Lugensa brevirostris'' * The gadfly petrels: These are a considerable number of agile short-billed petrels in the genus ''Pterodroma'' which include the endangered Bermuda petrel (or cahow) and a considerable number of forms rendered

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

by human activity. * The diving petrels: These are the four species of

auk Auks or alcids are birds of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the Uria, murres, guillemots, Aethia, auklets, puffins, and Brachyramphus, murrelets. The family contains 25 extant or recently extinct speci ...

-like small petrels of the southern oceans in the genus ''Pelacanoides''. The family Oceanitidae is the austral (or southern) storm petrels, and the family Hydrobatidae is the northern storm petrels. Collectively, they are known as the storm petrels, small pelagic petrels with a fluttering flight which often follow ships.

In culture

Petrels are culturally significant, and well-known poems have been written about the bird. One such example is given here.

References

External links