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
Giannutri in the northern part which become "garrigue" in the southern. Plants as "arbutus", "Myrtus", "pistacia lentiscus", mock privet, Mediterranean buckthorn, "juniperus phoenicea" and "limonium sommierianum" knew only on Isola del Giglio and Montecristo, grow up on the island. The mild climate has favoured the growth of plants such as "euphorbia", palm trees and wild orchids. The marine flora is abundant in sponges, madreporaria, black coral and red coral. The island, as all that of the Tuscan Archipelago, is a place where the bird migration take a stop along their seasonal movement from North to South. The Audouin's gull, Puffinus yelkouan,