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
Galápagos shearwater Galápagos shearwater The Galápagos shearwater ("Puffinus subalaris") is a small shearwater. Until recently it was considered to be a subspecies of Audubon's shearwater, but it is actually one of two members of a very ancient lineage of the small "Puffinus" species, the other being, as indicated by mtDNA cytochrome "b" sequence data, the Christmas shearwater. It is an endemic breeder of the Galápagos Islands, and is largely sedentary, although individuals are commonly seen as far as the Oaxacan coast of Mexico. The Galápagos shearwater has dark brown upperparts, undertail and underwing flight feathers, the rest of the underparts plumage being