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
Great shearwater Great shearwater The great shearwater ("Ardenna gravis"; formerly "Puffinus gravis") is a large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. "Ardenna" was first used to refer to a seabird by Italian naturalist Ulisse Aldrovandi in 1603, and "gravis" is Latin for "heavy". The great shearwater's relationships are unclear. It belongs in the group of large species that have been separated as genus "Ardenna" (Penhallurick & Wink 2004); within these, it might be allied with the other black-billed, blunt-tailed species, the short-tailed shearwater and especially the sooty shearwater (Austin 1996, Heidrich "et al." 1998). Alternatively (Austin 1996, Austin "et al." 2004), it