Nannopterum

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Nannopterum
Double-crested Cormorant RWD14.jpg
Double-crested cormorant (N. auritum)
Scientific classification e
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Suliformes
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Genus: Nannopterum
Sharpe, 1899
Type species
Nannopterum harrisi
Species

N. harrisi
N. brasilianum
N. auritum

Synonyms

Nesocarbo

Nannopterum is a genus of cormorant comprising three species. They are found throughout the Americas, hence the common name American cormorants.

Members of this genus were formerly classified within the genus Phalacrocorax, but a 2014 study found the members of this clade to represent a sister genus to Leucocarbo and reclassified them in the genus Nannopterum.[1] The IOC followed this classification in 2021.[2] It is thought to have split from Leucocarbo between 6.7 - 8.0 million years ago.[1]

Nannopterum directly translates to "small-winged"; this name was originally coined as a monotypic genus name for the flightless cormorant (N. harrisi), which does indeed have small wings; with more recent studies also finding the neotropic (N. brasilianum) and double-crested (N. auritum) cormorants to form a clade with the flightless cormorant, and with Nannopterum being the oldest distinct genus for the flightless cormorant, they too were classified in the genus Nannopterum, despite those species having normal-sized wings and full flight capabilities, if the genus includes only the flightless cormorant, then the double-crested and neotropical cormorants would be assigned together to a separate genus, Nesocarbo.

List of species[]

Image Scientific name Common Name Distribution
Flightless Cormorant (49528126627).jpg Nannopterum harrisi Flightless cormorant Fernandina and Isabela Islands in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
Neotropic Cormorant, Cotúa Olivácea (Phalacrocorax brasilianus olivaceus).jpg Nannopterum brasilianum Neotropic cormorant resident from Tierra Del Fuego north to throughout South America, Central America, and Mexico to the Gulf Coast of Texas, along with the southern tip of Baja California, Cuba, and Great Inagua island. Breeding range extends north to most of east-central Texas and central Arizona & New Mexico. Nonbreeding range extends to most of Bahamas.
Double-crested Cormorant (49605889903).jpg Nannopterum auritum Double-crested cormorant Throughout North America, from Alaska to throughout Canada and the United States, south to the Yucatán Peninsula, the Bahamas and Cuba.

References[]

  1. ^ a b "Classification of the cormorants of the world". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 79: 249–257. 2014-10-01. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.020. ISSN 1055-7903.
  2. ^ "Taxonomic Updates – IOC World Bird List". Retrieved 2021-07-28.
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