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
Persian shearwater off Oman and Socotra, Yemen, while "P. p. temptator" has been estimated to number fewer than 500 pairs on Moheli Island in the Comoros (reviewed by Brooke 2004). It is thought likely that more breeding colonies lie undiscovered elsewhere in the northern Indian Ocean (Onley and Scofield 2007), thus the total population probably includes more than 10,000 mature individuals. The population trend is believed to be downwards. Persian shearwater The Persian shearwater ("Puffinus persicus") is a seabird in the family Procellariidae formerly lumped in with Audubon's shearwater ("Puffinus lherminieri"). There are two listed subspecies of the Persian shearwater: After breeding,