Storm petrel

Storm petrel or stormy petrel may refer to one of two seabird families in the order Procellariiformes, which were historically treated as one family. Before the introduction of molecular phylogenetics, the traditional arrangement was to divide the Procellariiformes into a set of four families: Diomedeidae containing the albatrosses, Hydrobatidae containing all the storm petrels, Pelecanoididae containing the diving petrels and Procellariidae containing the petrels, shearwaters and fulmars. The family Hydrobatidae was further divided into two subfamilies, the northern storm petrels in Hydrobatinae and the southern or austral storm petrels in Oceanitinae.

A 1998 analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences found there was deep genetic divergence between the two subfamilies. Subsequent large-scale multigene studies found that the two subfamilies were not sister taxa. The storm petrels were therefore split into two families: Hydrobatidae containing the northern storm petrels and Oceanitidae, containing the southern storm petrels.

The species within the two families are:

• Northern storm petrels (Hydrobatidae) are found in the Northern Hemisphere, although some species around the Equator dip into the south.

• Southern storm petrels (Oceanitidae) are found in all oceans, although only white-faced storm petrel (breeding in the North Atlantic, in addition to the Southern Ocean) and Wilson's storm petrels (on migration) are found in the Northern Hemisphere.

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