Puffin are closely related, together composing the subfamily Fraterculini. The scientific name "Fratercula" is derived from Latin and means "little brother", a reference to the black and white plumage, which resembles monastic robes. 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". Puffin is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") for the cured carcasses of nestling Manx shearwaters. The oldest alcid fossil is "Hydrotherikornis" from Oregon dating to the Late Eocene while
Trevor H. Worthy the Waitomo frog ("Leiopelma waitomoensis"). In the 1990s Worthy discovered several fossil bird species new to science, including the long-billed wren ("Dendroscansor decurvirostris") in 1991, Scarlett's shearwater ("Puffinus spelaeus") in 1991, and the Niue night heron ("Nycticorax kalavikai") in 1995. In 1991 he also described the Northland skink, a fossil skink species new to science. In 1998 Worthy excavated subfossil bones in Fiji, where he found remains of the flightless Viti Levu giant pigeon ("Natunaornis gigoura"), the Viti Levu scrubfowl ("Megapodius amissus"), the Viti Levu snipe ("Coenocorypha miratropica"), the giant Fiji ground frog ("Platymantis megabotoniviti"), and the small freshwater crocodile