This species has shown some significant signs of animal intelligence. The Fraterculini are thought to have originated in the Pacific primarily because of their greater diversity there there is only one extant species in the Atlantic, compared to two in the Pacific. Another extinct species, Dow's puffin ( Fratercula dowi) was found on the Channel Islands of California until the Late Pleistocene or early Holocene. Fossils from North Carolina were originally thought to have been of two Fratercula species, but were later reassigned to one Fratercula, the tufted puffin, and a Cerorhinca species. Molecular clocks have been used to suggest an origin in the Pacific in the Paleocene. The oldest alcid fossil is Hydrotherikornis from Oregon dating to the Late Eocene while fossils of Aethia and Uria go back to the Late Miocene. The puffins and the rhinoceros auklet are closely related, together composing the subfamily Fraterculini. The rhinoceros auklet ( Cerorhinca monocerata) has sometimes been included in the genus Fratercula, and some authors place the tufted puffin in the genus Lunda. The name Fratercula is Latin for " friar" from the word fraterculus "little brother", because the puffin's black and white plumage resemble robes worn by monks.
The genus Fratercula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the Atlantic puffin ( Fratercula arctica) as the type species. Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word ( Middle English pophyn or poffin) for the cured carcasses of nestling Manx shearwaters. The English name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated Manx shearwater ( Puffinus puffinus), formerly known as the "Manks puffin". In the air, they beat their wings rapidly (up to 400 times per minute) in swift flight, often flying low over the ocean's surface. Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique underwater. They shed the colorful outer parts of their bills after the breeding season, leaving a smaller and duller beak. Two species, the tufted puffin and horned puffin, are found in the North Pacific Ocean, while the Atlantic puffin is found in the North Atlantic Ocean.Īll puffin species have predominantly black or black and white plumage, a stocky build, and large beaks that get brightly colored during the breeding season. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil. These are pelagic seabirds that feed primarily by diving in the water.
Puffins are any of three species of small alcids ( auks) in the bird genus Fratercula.
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