Phalacrocorax

Phalacrocorax is a genus of fish-eating birds in the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Members of this genus are also known as the Old World cormorants.[1]

Phalacrocorax
Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Suliformes
Family: Phalacrocoracidae
Genus: Phalacrocorax
Brisson, 1760
Type species
Pelecanus carbo
Species

12, see text

Synonyms
  • Stictocarbo
  • Nanocorax (in part)
  • Anocarbo

Taxonomy

The genus Phalacrocorax was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) as the type species.[2][3] Phalacrocorax is the Latin word for a cormorant.[4]

Formerly, many other species of cormorant were classified in Phalacrocorax, but most of these have been split out into different genera. A 2014 study found Phalacrocrax to be the sister genus to Urile, which are thought to have split from each other between 8.9 - 10.3 million years ago.[5]

Current taxonomy

A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 found that the genus Phalacrocorax contains 12 species.[5] This taxonomy was adopted by the IUCN Red List and BirdLife International, and later by the IOC.[6]

ImageScientific nameCommon NameDistribution
Phalacrocorax neglectusBank cormorant or Wahlberg's cormorantNamibia and the western seaboard of South Africa
Phalacrocorax nigrogularisSocotra cormorantArabian Peninsula.
Phalacrocorax featherstoniPitt shag or Featherstone's shagPitt Island.
Phalacrocorax punctatusSpotted shagNew Zealand.
Phalacrocorax fuscescensBlack-faced cormorantWestern Australia, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania
Phalacrocorax variusAustralian pied cormorant or yellow-faced cormorantAustralasia, New Zealand
Phalacrocorax sulcirostrisLittle black cormorantAustralia and northern New Zealand
Phalacrocorax fuscicollisIndian cormorantIndian Subcontinent west to Sind and east to Thailand and Cambodia.
Phalacrocorax capensisCape cormorantthe Congo, and up the east coast of South Africa as far as Mozambique.
Phalacrocorax capillatusJapanese cormorant or Temminck's cormorantTaiwan, north through Korea and Japan, to the Russian Far East.
Phalacrocorax lucidusWhite-breasted cormorantthe Cape Verde Islands to Guinea-Bissau and from Angola to the Cape of Good Hope and northwards on the east coast to Mozambique.
Phalacrocorax carboGreat cormorant or black shagthe Old World, Australia, and the Atlantic coast of North America.


Alternative taxonomies

Formerly, the genus Phalacrocorax often included all members of the family Phalacrocoracidae. More recently, some authorities, such as the Clements checklist, recognized Microcarbo as distinct (due to its morphological distinctiveness and the old age of its split from the remaining cormorants), while retaining all other cormorants in a still-broad Phalacrocorax. The IOC checklist went a step further in recognizing Leucocarbo as well as Microcarbo as distinct (while retaining the rest in Phalacrocorax), but this treatment rendered Phalacrocorax paraphyletic (with some members much more closely related to Leucocarbo than others). Nowadays, due to the age of the splits between different cormorant clades, most authorities, including the aforementioned two checklists, now recognize seven cormorant genera: Microcarbo, Poikilocarbo, Phalacrocorax, Urile, Gulosus, Nannopterum, and Leucocarbo.[5]

References

  1. "Old World Cormorants (Genus Phalacrocorax)". iNaturalist NZ. Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  2. Brisson, Mathurin Jacques (1760). Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés (in French and Latin). Paris: Jean-Baptiste Bauche. Vol. 1, p. 60, Vol. 6, p. 511.
  3. Mayr, Ernst; Cottrell, G. William, eds. (1979). Check-list of Birds of the World. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Museum of Comparative Zoology. p. 163.
  4. Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 301. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
  5. Kennedy, M.; Spencer, H.G. (2014). "Classification of the cormorants of the world". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 79: 249–257. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.020. PMID 24994028.
  6. Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (August 2022). "Storks, frigatebirds, boobies, darters, cormorants". IOC World Bird List Version 12.2. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 21 November 2022.
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