Puffinus be divided in what has been called the "Puffinus" and the "Neonectris" group after notable species; the latter has been separated as a distinct genus named "Ardenna". The former is taxonomically confusing, with species having been split and remerged in the last years. The genus "Puffinus" contains the following species: Several fossil species which became extinct long ago are also known. The proportion of larger ("Neonectris") species apparently was larger before the Pliocene, i.e. before marine mammals diversified: ""Puffinus" arvernensis" (Early Miocene of France) is now considered a primitive albatross of the fossil genus "Plotornis". Puffinus Puffinus is a genus
Frederick Wollaston Hutton in 1891. He was founding President of the Royal Society of New Zealand from 1904 to his death in 1905; he was followed by Sir James Hector. He worked successively at the Colonial Museum, Wellington (1871–1873); Otago Museum, Dunedin (1877–1879); and the Canterbury Museum, Christchurch (1887–1905) Hutton died on the return voyage from England on 27 October 1905, and was buried at sea off Cape Town, South Africa. He is commemorated in the Hutton Memorial Medal and Research Fund, awarded for scientific works bearing on the zoology, botany or geology of New Zealand. Hutton's shearwater ("Puffinus huttoni"), a sea bird,