Petrel (nonfiction)

Blue petrel.

Petrels are tube-nosed seabirds in the bird order Procellariiformes.

Description

The common name does not indicate relationship beyond that point, as "petrels" occur in three of the four families within that group (except the albatross family, Diomedeidae).

Having a fossil record that was assumed to extend back at least 60 million years, the Procellariiformes was long considered to be among the older bird groupings, other than the ratites, with presumably distant ties to penguins and loons.

However, recent research and fossil finds such as Vegavis show that the Galliformes (pheasants, grouse and relatives), and Anseriformes (ducks, geese) are still not fully resolved.

All the members of the order are exclusively pelagic in distribution — returning to land only to breed.

Fiction cross-reference

• Stomach Oil Exporting Petrels (SOEP) - an interspecies organization of stomach oil (nonfiction)-exporting petrels

External links

• Petrel @ Wikipedia.com