Atlantic puffin Medieval Latin "fratercula", friar, a reference to the black and white plumage which resembles monastic robes. The specific name "arctica" refers to the northerly distribution of the bird, being derived from the Greek ἄρκτος ("arktos"), the bear, referring to the northerly constellation, the Great Bear. The vernacular name "puffin" – puffed in the sense of swollen – was originally applied to the fatty, salted meat of young birds of the unrelated species Manx shearwater ("Puffinus puffinus"), which in 1652 was known as the "Manks puffin". It is an Anglo-Norman word (Middle English "pophyn" or "poffin") used for the cured carcasses.
Storrs L. Olson world's foremost paleornithologists. He was also the 1994 recipient of the Loye and Alden Miller Research Award. He was formerly curator of birds at the United States National Museum of Natural History; , he holds an emeritus position in the institution. Several prehistoric bird species have been named after Olson, including "Nycticorax olsoni", "Himantopus olsoni", "Puffinus olsoni", "Primobucco olsoni", "Gallirallus storrsolsoni", and "Quercypodargus olsoni". Storrs L. Olson Storrs Lovejoy Olson (born April 3, 1944) is an American biologist and ornithologist who spent his career the Smithsonian Institution, retiring in 2008. One of the world's foremost avian paleontologists, he is best