Phalacrocoracidae is a
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
of approximately 40
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the
IOC
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven
genera. The
great cormorant
The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...
(''Phalacrocorax carbo'') and the
common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') are the only two species of the family commonly encountered in Britain and Ireland and "cormorant" and "shag" appellations have been later assigned to different species in the family somewhat haphazardly.
Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large birds, with body weight in the range of and wing span of . The majority of species have dark feathers. The bill is long, thin and hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes. All species are fish-eaters, catching the prey by diving from the surface. They are excellent divers, and under water they propel themselves with their feet with help from their wings; some cormorant species have been found to dive as deep as . They have relatively short wings due to their need for economical movement underwater, and consequently have the highest flight costs of any flying bird.
Cormorants nest in colonies around the shore, on trees, islets or cliffs. They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters. The original ancestor of cormorants seems to have been a fresh-water bird. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.
Names
No consistent distinction exists between cormorants and shags. The names 'cormorant' and 'shag' were originally the common names of the two species of the family found in
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
, ''Phalacrocorax carbo'' (now referred to by ornithologists as the
great cormorant
The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...
) and ''Gulosus aristotelis'' (the
European shag
The European shag or common shag (''Gulosus aristotelis'') is a species of cormorant. It is the only member of the monotypic genus ''Gulosus''. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern Europe, southwest Asia and north Africa, mai ...
). "Shag" refers to the bird's crest, which the British forms of the great cormorant lack. As other species were encountered by
English-speaking
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the '' Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest langua ...
sailors and explorers elsewhere in the world, some were called cormorants and some shags, depending on whether they had crests or not. Sometimes the same species is called a cormorant in one part of the world and a shag in another, e.g., the great cormorant is called the black shag in
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
(the birds found in
Australasia
Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...
have a crest that is absent in European members of the species).
Van Tets (1976) proposed to divide the family into two
genera and attach the name "cormorant" to one and "shag" to the other, but this nomenclature has not been widely adopted.
The scientific
family
Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Idea ...
name is
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
ised
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...
, from φαλακρός (''phalakros'', "bald") and κόραξ (''korax'', "raven").
This is often thought to refer to the creamy white patch on the cheeks of adult
great cormorant
The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...
s, or the ornamental white head plumes prominent in Mediterranean birds of this species, but is certainly not a unifying characteristic of cormorants. "Cormorant" is a
contraction derived either directly from Latin ''corvus marinus'', "sea raven" or through
Brythonic Celtic.
Cormoran
Cormoran ( or ) is a giant associated with St. Michael's Mount in the folklore of Cornwall. Local tradition credits him with creating the island, in some versions with the aid of his wife Cormelian, and using it as a base to raid cattle from t ...
is the
Cornish name of the sea giant in the tale of
Jack the Giant Killer. Indeed, "sea raven" or analogous terms were the usual terms for cormorants in
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, E ...
until after the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
. The French explorer
André Thévet
André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...
commented in 1558, "... the beak
ssimilar to that of a cormorant or other corvid," which demonstrates that the erroneous belief that the birds were related to ravens lasted at least to the 16th century.
Description
![Cormorant in Maynaguri](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Cormorant_in_Maynaguri.jpg)
Cormorants and shags are medium-to-large
seabird
Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
s. They range in size from the
pygmy cormorant
The pygmy cormorant (''Microcarbo pygmaeus'') is a member of the Phalacrocoracidae (cormorant) family of seabirds. It breeds in south-eastern Europe and south-western Asia. It is partially migratory, with northern populations wintering further ...
(''Microcarbo pygmaeus''), at as little as and , to the
flightless cormorant
The flightless cormorant (''Nannopterum harrisi''), also known as the Galapagos cormorant, is a cormorant endemic to the Galapagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there. It is unique in that it is the only known cormorant th ...
(''Nannopterum harrisi''), at a maximum size and . The recently extinct
spectacled cormorant (''Urile perspicillatus'') was rather larger, at an average size of . The majority, including nearly all Northern Hemisphere species, have mainly dark
plumage, but some Southern Hemisphere species are black and white, and a few (e.g. the
spotted shag
The spotted shag or pārekareka (''Phalacrocorax punctatus'') is a species of cormorant endemic to New Zealand. Though originally classified as ''Phalacrocorax punctatus'', it is sufficiently different in appearance from typical members of that ...
of New Zealand) are quite colourful. Many species have areas of coloured skin on the face (the
lores and the
gular skin
Gular skin (throat skin), in ornithology, is an area of featherless skin on birds that joins the lower mandible of the beak (or ''bill'') to the bird's neck. Other vertebrate taxa may have a comparable anatomical structure that is referred to as ...
) which can be bright blue, orange, red or yellow, typically becoming more brightly coloured in the breeding season. The bill is long, thin, and sharply hooked. Their feet have webbing between all four toes, as in their relatives.
Habitat
![Imperial Shags](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Imperial_Shags.jpg)
They are coastal rather than oceanic birds, and some have colonised inland waters – indeed, the original ancestor of cormorants seems to have been a fresh-water bird, judging from the habitat of the most ancient lineage. They range around the world, except for the central Pacific islands.
Behaviour
All cormorants and shags are fish-eaters, dining on small
eel
Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...
s, fish, and even water snakes. They dive from the surface, though many species make a characteristic half-jump as they dive, presumably to give themselves a more streamlined entry into the water. Under water they propel themselves with their feet, though some also propel themselves with their wings (see the picture, commentary, and existing reference video). Imperial shag cormorants fitted with miniaturized video recorders have been filmed diving to depths of as much as to forage on the sea floor.
![Cormorant at Kanjia Lake, Bhubaneswar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Cormorant_at_Kanjia_Lake%2C_Bhubaneswar.JPG)
After fishing, cormorants go ashore, and are frequently seen holding their wings out in the sun. All cormorants have
preen gland
The uropygial gland, informally known as the preen gland or the oil gland, is a bilobed sebaceous gland possessed by the majority of birds used to distribute the gland's oil through the plumage by means of preening. It is located dorsally at the ...
secretions that are used ostensibly to keep the feathers waterproof. Some sources state that cormorants have waterproof feathers while others say that they have water-''permeable'' feathers. Still others suggest that the outer plumage absorbs water but does not permit it to penetrate the layer of air next to the skin. The wing drying action is seen even in the flightless cormorant but not in the Antarctic shags or red-legged cormorants. Alternate functions suggested for the spread-wing posture include that it aids
thermoregulation
Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when the surrounding temperature is very different. A thermoconforming organism, by contrast, simply adopts the surrounding temperature ...
or digestion, balances the bird, or indicates presence of fish. A detailed study of the great cormorant concludes that it is without doubt to dry the plumage.
Cormorants are colonial nesters, using trees, rocky islets, or cliffs. The
eggs
Humans and human ancestors have scavenged and eaten animal eggs for millions of years. Humans in Southeast Asia had domesticated chickens and harvested their eggs for food by 1,500 BCE. The most widely consumed eggs are those of fowl, especial ...
are a chalky-blue colour. There is usually one brood a year. Parents
regurgitate food to feed their young, whose deep, ungainly bills show a greater resemblance to those of the
pelicans (to which they are related) than is obvious in the adults.
Taxonomy
The cormorants are a group traditionally placed within the
Pelecaniformes
The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such n ...
or, in the
Sibley–Ahlquist taxonomy, the expanded
Ciconiiformes
Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout bills. They belong to the family called Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, such as herons a ...
. This latter group is certainly not a natural one, and even after the
tropicbird
Tropicbirds are a family, Phaethontidae, of tropical pelagic seabirds. They are the sole living representatives of the order Phaethontiformes. For many years they were considered part of the Pelecaniformes, but genetics indicates they are most cl ...
s have been recognised as quite distinct, the remaining Pelecaniformes seem not to be entirely
monophyletic. Their relationships and delimitation – apart from being part of a "higher waterfowl"
clade which is similar but not identical to Sibley and Ahlquist's "pan-Ciconiiformes" – remain mostly unresolved. Notwithstanding, all evidence agrees that the cormorants and shags are closer to the
darter
The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, ''Anhinga''. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and ...
s and
Sulidae
The bird family Sulidae comprises the gannets and boobies. Collectively called sulids, they are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish and similar prey. The 10 species in this family are often considered congeneric in older ...
(gannets and boobies), and perhaps the pelicans or even
penguins, than to all other living birds.
In recent years, three preferred treatments of the cormorant family have emerged: either to leave all living cormorants in a single genus, ''Phalacrocorax'', or to split off a few species such as the
imperial shag
The imperial shag or imperial cormorant (''Leucocarbo atriceps'') is a black and white cormorant native to southern South America, primarily in rocky coastal regions, but locally also at large inland lakes. Some taxonomic authorities, including ...
complex (in ''Leucocarbo'') and perhaps the
flightless cormorant
The flightless cormorant (''Nannopterum harrisi''), also known as the Galapagos cormorant, is a cormorant endemic to the Galapagos Islands, and an example of the highly unusual fauna there. It is unique in that it is the only known cormorant th ...
. Alternatively, the genus may be disassembled altogether and in the most extreme case be reduced to the
great
Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements
* Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size
* Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent
People
* List of people known as "the Great"
*Artel Great (born ...
,
white-breasted and
Japanese cormorant
The Japanese cormorant (''Phalacrocorax capillatus''), also known as Temminck's cormorant, is a cormorant native to the east Palearctic. It lives from Taiwan, north through Korea and Japan, to the Russian Far East.
The Japanese cormorant has a b ...
s. In 2014, a landmark study proposed a 7 genera treatment, which was adopted by the
IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
and
BirdLife International, and later by the
IOC
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
in 2021, standardizing it.
[
]
The cormorants and the darters have a unique bone on the back of the top of the skull known as the ''os nuchale'' or occipital style which was called a xiphoid process in early literature. This bony projection provides anchorage for the muscles that increase the force with which the lower mandible is closed. This bone and the highly developed muscles over it, the M. adductor mandibulae caput nuchale, are unique to the families Phalacrocoracidae and Anhingidae.
Several evolution
Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...
ary groups are still recognizable. However, combining the available evidence suggests that there has also been a great deal of convergent evolution
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...
; for example the cliff shags are a convergent paraphyletic group. The proposed division into ''Phalacrocorax sensu stricto'' (or subfamily "Phalacrocoracinae") cormorants and ''Leucocarbo sensu lato'' (or "Leucocarboninae") shags does have some degree of merit.[Kennedy ''et al.'' (2000)] The resolution provided by the mtDNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...
12S rRNA and ATPase subunits six and eight sequence
In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...
data is not sufficient to properly resolve several groups to satisfaction; in addition, many species remain unsampled, the fossil record has not been integrated in the data, and the effects of hybridisation – known in some Pacific species especially – on the DNA sequence data are unstudied.
A multigene molecular phylogenetic study published in 2014 provided a genus-level phylogeny of the family.
List of genera
As per the IOC
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
, the IUCN Red List
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...
and BirdLife International, the family contains 7 genera:
Prior to 2021, the IOC classified all these species in just ''Microcarbo'', ''Phalacrocorax'', and ''Leucocarbo''.
Some authorities such as the Clements Checklist
''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world.
The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...
have just two genera, ''Microcarbo'' with 5 species, and the rest in ''Phalacrocorax.''
For details, see the article "List of cormorant species
The International Ornithological Congress (IOC) recognizes these 42 species of cormorants and shags which are distributed among seven genera. One species, spectacled cormorant (formerly called Pallas's cormorant), is extinct.
This list is prese ...
".
Evolution and fossil record
Cormorants have a very ancient body plan, with similar birds reaching back to the time of the dinosaurs. In fact, the earliest known modern bird, '' Gansus yumenensis'', had essentially the same structure. The details of the evolution of the cormorant are mostly unknown. Even the technique of using the distribution and relationships of a species to figure out where it came from, biogeography, usually very informative, does not give very specific data for this probably rather ancient and widespread group. However, the closest living relatives of the cormorants and shags are the other families of the suborder Sulae—darter
The darters, anhingas, or snakebirds are mainly tropical waterbirds in the family Anhingidae, which contains a single genus, ''Anhinga''. There are four living species, three of which are very common and widespread while the fourth is rarer and ...
s and gannets and boobies—which have a primarily Gondwanan distribution. Hence, at least the modern diversity of Sulae probably originated in the southern hemisphere.
While the Leucocarbonines are almost certainly of southern Pacific origin—possibly even the Antarctic which, at the time when cormorants evolved, was not yet ice-covered—all that can be said about the Phalacrocoracines is that they are most diverse in the regions bordering the Indian Ocean, but generally occur over a large area.
Similarly, the origin of the family is shrouded in uncertainties. Some Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...
fossils have been proposed to belong with the Phalacrocoracidae:
A scapula
The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on eith ...
from the Campanian
The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous Epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campani ...
-Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval ...
boundary, about 70 mya (million years ago), was found in the Nemegt Formation
The Nemegt Formation (also known as Nemegtskaya Svita) is a geological formation in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, dating to the Late Cretaceous. The formation consists of river channel sediments and contains fossils of fish, turtles, crocodilians, ...
in Mongolia; it is now in the PIN
A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together.
Pin or PIN may also refer to:
Computers and technology
* Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system
** PIN pad, a PIN entry device
* PIN, a former Dutch ...
collection. It is from a bird roughly the size of a spectacled cormorant, and quite similar to the corresponding bone in ''Phalacrocorax''. A Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval ...
(Late Cretaceous, c. 66 mya) right femur
The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...
, AMNH
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 i ...
FR 25272 from the Lance Formation
The Lance (Creek) Formation is a division of Late Cretaceous (dating to about 69 - 66 Ma) rocks in the western United States. Named after Lance Creek, Wyoming, the microvertebrate fossils and dinosaurs represent important components of the late ...
near Lance Creek, Wyoming
Lance Creek is a census-designated place (CDP) in Niobrara County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 43 at the 2010 census. Lance Creek is the namesake of the Lance Formation, a rock formation from the Late Cretaceous that has yielded ...
, is sometimes suggested to be the second-oldest record of the Phalacrocoracidae; this was from a rather smaller bird, about the size of a long-tailed cormorant. However, cormorants likely originated much later, and these are likely misidentifications.
As the Early Oligocene
The Rupelian is, in the geologic timescale, the older of two ages or the lower of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/ Series. It spans the time between . It is preceded by the Priabonian Stage (part of the Eocene) and is followed by the Chattian ...
''"Sula" ronzoni'' cannot be assigned to any of the suloid families—cormorants and shags, darters, and gannets and boobies—with certainty, the best interpretation is that the Phalacrocoracidae diverged from their closest ancestors in the Early Oligocene, perhaps some 30 million years ago, and that the Cretaceous fossils represent ancestral suloids, "pelecaniforms" or "higher waterbirds"; at least the last lineage is generally believed to have been already distinct and undergoing evolutionary radiation
An evolutionary radiation is an increase in taxonomic diversity that is caused by elevated rates of speciation, that may or may not be associated with an increase in morphological disparity. Radiations may affect one clade or many, and be rapid ...
at the end of the Cretaceous. What can be said with near certainty is that AMNH FR 25272 is from a diving bird that used its feet for underwater locomotion; as this is liable to result in some degree of convergent evolution and the bone is missing indisputable neornithine features, it is not entirely certain that the bone is correctly referred to this group.
Phylogenetic evidence indicates that the cormorants diverged from their closest relatives, the darters, during the Late Oligocene, indicating that most of the claims of Cretaceous or early Paleogene cormorant occurrences are likely misidentifications.
During the late Paleogene, when the family presumably originated, much of Eurasia was covered by shallow seas, as the Indian Plate
The Indian Plate (or India Plate) is a minor tectonic plate straddling the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere. Originally a part of the ancient continent of Gondwana, the Indian Plate broke away from the other fragments of Gondwana , began ...
finally attached to the mainland. Lacking a detailed study, it may well be that the first "modern" cormorants were small species from eastern, south-eastern or southern Asia, possibly living in freshwater habitat, that dispersed due to tectonic
Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...
events. Such a scenario would account for the present-day distribution of cormorants and shags and is not contradicted by the fossil record; as remarked above, a thorough review of the problem is not yet available.
Two distinct genera of prehistoric cormorants are widely accepted today, if ''Phalacrocorax'' is used for all living species:
* '' Limicorallus'' (Indricotherium middle Oligocene of Chelkar-Teniz, Kazakhstan)
* '' Nectornis'' (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene of Central Europe – Middle Miocene of Bes-Konak, Turkey) – includes ''Oligocorax miocaenus''
The proposed genus ''Oligocorax'' appears to be paraphyletic – the European species have been separated in ''Nectornis'', and the North American ones are placed in the expanded ''Phalacrocorax''. A Late Oligocene
The Chattian is, in the geologic timescale, the younger of two ages or upper of two stages of the Oligocene Epoch/ Series. It spans the time between . The Chattian is preceded by the Rupelian and is followed by the Aquitanian (the lowest stage ...
fossil cormorant foot from Enspel
Enspel is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a community belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'' – in the Westerwaldkreis in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Geography
Enspel lies 10 km northwest of Westerburg on a bank on the west slope of the Stöffel, ...
, Germany, sometimes placed herein, would then be referable to ''Nectornis'' if it proves not to be too distinct. All these early European species might belong to the basal group of "microcormorants", as they conform with them in size and seem to have inhabited the same habitat: subtropical coastal or inland waters. ''Limicorallus'', meanwhile, was initially believed to be a rail
Rail or rails may refer to:
Rail transport
*Rail transport and related matters
*Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway
Arts and media Film
* ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini
* ''Rail'' ( ...
or a dabbling duck by some. There are also undescribed remains of apparent cormorants from the Quercy Phosphorites of Quercy
Quercy (; oc, Carcin , locally ) is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and ...
(France), dating to some time between the Late Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', "d ...
and the mid- Oligocene.
Some other Paleogene remains are sometimes assigned to the Phalacrocoracidae, but these birds seem quite intermediate between cormorants and darters (and lack clear autapomorph
In phylogenetics, an autapomorphy is a distinctive feature, known as a derived trait, that is unique to a given taxon. That is, it is found only in one taxon, but not found in any others or outgroup taxa, not even those most closely related to t ...
ies of either). Thus, they may be quite basal members of the Palacrocoracoidea. The taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
in question are:
* '' Piscator'' (Late Eocene of England)
* "Pelecaniformes" gen. et sp. indet. (Jebel Qatrani Early Oligocene of Fayum, Egypt) – similar to ''Piscator''?
* '' Borvocarbo'' (Late Oligocene of C Europe)
The supposed Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene ''" Valenticarbo"'' is a '' nomen dubium'' and given its recent age probably not a separate genus.
The remaining species are, in accordance with the scheme used in this article, all placed in the modern genus ''Phalacrocorax'':
* ''Phalacrocorax marinavis'' (Oligocene – Early Miocene of Oregon, US) – formerly ''Oligocorax''
* ''Phalacrocorax littoralis'' (Late Oligocene/Early Miocene of St-Gérand-le-Puy, France) – formerly ''Oligocorax'', might belong into ''Nectornis''
* ''Phalacrocorax intermedius'' (Early – Middle Miocene of C Europe) – includes ''P. praecarbo, Ardea/P. brunhuberi'' and ''Botaurites avitus''
* ''Phalacrocorax macropus'' (Early Miocene – Pliocene of north-west US)
* ''Phalacrocorax ibericus'' (Late Miocene of Valles de Fuentiduena, Spain)
* ''Phalacrocorax lautus'' (Late Miocene of Golboçica, Moldavia)
* ''Phalacrocorax serdicensis'' (Late Miocene of Hrabarsko, Bulgaria)
* ''Phalacrocorax femoralis'' (Modelo Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of WC North America) – formerly ''Miocorax''
* ''Phalacrocorax'' sp. (Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax longipes'' (Late Miocene – Early Pliocene of the Ukraine) – formerly ''Pliocarbo''
* ''Phalacrocorax goletensis'' (Early Pliocene – Early Pleistocene of Mexico)
* ''Phalacrocorax wetmorei'' (Bone Valley Early Pliocene of Florida)
* ''Phalacrocorax'' sp. (Bone Valley Early Pliocene of Polk County, Florida, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax leptopus'' (Juntura Early/Middle Pliocene of Juntura, Malheur County, Oregon, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax idahensis'' (Middle Pliocene – Pleistocene of Idaho, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax destefanii'' (Late Pliocene of Italy) – formerly ''Paracorax''
* ''Phalacrocorax filyawi'' (Pinecrest Late Pliocene of Florida, US) – may be ''P. idahensis''
* ''Phalacrocorax kumeyaay'' (San Diego Late Pliocene of California, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax macer'' (Late Pliocene of Idaho, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax mongoliensis'' (Late Pliocene of W Mongolia)
* ''Phalacrocorax rogersi'' (Late Pliocene – Early Pleistocene of California, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax kennelli'' (San Diego Pliocene of California, US)
* ''Phalacrocorax'' sp. "Wildhalm" (Pliocene) – may be same as ''P. longipes''
* ''Phalacrocorax chapalensis'' (Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene of Jalisco, Mexico)
* ''Phalacrocorax gregorii'' (Late Pleistocene of Australia) – possibly not a valid species
* ''Phalacrocorax vetustus'' (Late Pleistocene of Australia) – formerly ''Australocorax'', possibly not a valid species
* ''Phalacrocorax reliquus''
* ''Phalacrocorax'' sp. (Sarasota County, Florida, US) – may be ''P. filawyi/idahensis''
The former ''"Phalacrocorax"'' (or ''"Oligocorax"'') ''mediterraneus'' is now considered to belong to the bathornithid ''Paracrax antiqua
''Paracrax'' ("near curassow") is a genus of extinct North American flightless birds, possibly related to modern seriemas and the extinct terror birds. Part of Bathornithidae (though some analysis recover it as closer to the living seriemas inst ...
''. ''"P." subvolans'' was actually a darter (''Anhinga'').
In human culture
Cormorant fishing
Humans have used cormorants' fishing skills in various places in the world. Archaeological evidence suggests that cormorant fishing was practised in Ancient Egypt, Peru, Korea and India, but the strongest tradition has remained in China and Japan, where it reached commercial-scale level in some areas. In Japan, cormorant fishing is called . Traditional forms of ''ukai'' can be seen on the Nagara River
The has its source in the city of Gujō, Gifu Prefecture, and its mouth in the city of Kuwana, Mie Prefecture, Japan. Along with the Kiso River and Ibi River, the Nagara River is one of the Kiso Three Rivers of the Nōbi Plain. Previously, t ...
in the city of Gifu, Gifu Prefecture, where cormorant fishing
Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing technique in which fishermen use trained cormorants to catch fish in rivers. Historically, cormorant fishing has taken place in Japan and China, as well as Greece, North Macedonia, and briefly, England an ...
has continued uninterrupted for 1300 years, or in the city of Inuyama, Aichi
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshū. Aichi Prefecture has a population of 7,552,873 () and a geographic area of with a population density of . Aichi Prefecture borders Mie Prefecture to the west, Gifu Prefecture ...
. In Guilin
Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''; alternatively romanized as Kweilin) is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the west bank of the Li River and borders Hunan to the nort ...
, Guangxi, cormorants are famous for fishing on the shallow Li River
The Li River or Li Jiang () is the name for the upper reaches of the Gui River in northwestern Guangxi, China. It is part of the Xijiang River system in the Pearl River Basin. The river flows from Xing'an County to Pingle County, where the ...
. In Gifu, the Japanese cormorant
The Japanese cormorant (''Phalacrocorax capillatus''), also known as Temminck's cormorant, is a cormorant native to the east Palearctic. It lives from Taiwan, north through Korea and Japan, to the Russian Far East.
The Japanese cormorant has a b ...
(''P. capillatus'') is used; Chinese fishermen often employ great cormorant
The great cormorant (''Phalacrocorax carbo''), known as the black shag in New Zealand and formerly also known as the great black cormorant across the Northern Hemisphere, the black cormorant in Australia, and the large cormorant in India, is a w ...
s (''P. carbo''). In Europe, a similar practice was also used on Doiran Lake in the region of Macedonia
Macedonia () is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time; however, it came to be defined as the modern geographical region by the mid 19th century. T ...
. James VI and I
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until ...
appointed a keeper of cormorants, John Wood, and built ponds at Westminster
Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster.
The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, B ...
to train the birds to fish.[James Edmund Harting, ''The Ornithology of Shakespeare'' (London, 1871), p. 262: Frederick Devon, ''Issues of the Exchequer'' (London, 1836), pp. 333-5.]
In a common technique, a snare is tied near the base of the bird's throat, which allows the bird only to swallow small fish. When the bird captures and tries to swallow a large fish, the fish is caught in the bird's throat. When the bird returns to the fisherman's raft, the fisherman helps the bird to remove the fish from its throat. The method is not as common today, since more efficient methods of catching fish have been developed, but is still practised as a cultural tradition.[
]
In folklore, literature, and art
Cormorants feature in heraldry and medieval ornamentation, usually in their "wing-drying" pose, which was seen as representing the Christian cross, and symbolizing nobility and sacrifice. For John Milton in '' Paradise Lost'', the cormorant symbolizes greed
Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as und ...
: perched atop the Tree of Life
The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythological, religious, and philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The Assyrian Sacred Tree: A Hist ...
, Satan took the form of a cormorant as he spied on Adam and Eve during his first intrusion into Eden.
In some Scandinavian areas, they are considered good omen; in particular, in Norwegian tradition spirits of those lost at sea come to visit their loved ones disguised as cormorants. For example, the Norwegian municipalities of Røst
Røst is a small island municipality in Nordland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Lofoten. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Røstlandet on the island of Røstlandet.
The island munici ...
, Loppa
Loppa ( sme, Láhppi and fkv, Lappea) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Øksfjord. Other villages in Loppa include Andsnes, Bergsfjord, Langfjordhamn, Lop ...
and Skjervøy
Skjervøy kommune ( sme, Skiervvá suohkan; fkv, Kieruan komuuni) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Skjervøy on the island of Skjervøya, where most of the in ...
have cormorants in their coat of arms. The symbolic liver bird
The liver bird is a mythical creature which is the symbol of the English city of Liverpool. It is normally represented as a cormorant, and appears as such on the city's arms, in which it bears a branch of laver seaweed in its beak as a furth ...
of Liverpool is commonly thought to be a cross between an eagle and a cormorant.
In Homer's epic poem The Odyssey, Odysseus (Ulysses) is saved by a compassionate sea nymph who takes the form of a cormorant.
In 1853, a woman wearing a dress made of cormorant feathers was found on San Nicolas Island
San Nicolas Island ( Spanish: ''Isla de San Nicolás''; Tongva: ''Haraasnga'') is the most remote of the Channel Islands, off of Southern California, 61 miles (98 km) from the nearest point on the mainland coast. It is part of Ventura Cou ...
, off the southern coast of California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. She had sewn the feather dress together using whale sinews. She is known as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas and was later baptised "Juana Maria
Juana Maria (died October 19, 1853), better known to history as the Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island (her Native American name is unknown), was a Native Californian woman who was the last surviving member of her tribe, the Nicoleño. She lived ...
" (her original name is lost). The woman had lived alone on the island for 18 years before being rescued. When removed from San Nicolas, she brought with her a green cormorant dress she made; this dress is reported to have been removed to the Vatican.
The bird has inspired numerous writers, including Amy Clampitt, who wrote a poem
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...
called "The Cormorant in its Element". The species she described may have been the pelagic cormorant
The pelagic cormorant (''Urile pelagicus''), also known as Baird's cormorant or violet-green cormorant, is a small member of the cormorant family Phalacrocoracidae. Analogous to other smallish cormorants, it is also called the pelagic shag occasi ...
, which is the only species in the temperate U.S. with the "slim head ... vermilion-strapped" and "big black feet" that she mentions.
A cormorant representing Blanche Ingram appears in the first of the fictional paintings by Jane in Charlotte Brontë
Charlotte Brontë (, commonly ; 21 April 1816 – 31 March 1855) was an English novelist and poet, the eldest of the three Brontë sisters who survived into adulthood and whose novels became classics of English literature.
She enlisted i ...
's novel ''Jane Eyre
''Jane Eyre'' ( ; originally published as ''Jane Eyre: An Autobiography'') is a novel by the English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published under her pen name "Currer Bell" on 19 October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London. The first ...
''.
In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger
"The Adventure of the Veiled Lodger" (1927), one of the 56 Sherlock Holmes short stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is one of 12 stories in the cycle collected as ''The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes''.
Synopsis
Holmes is ...
", Dr. Watson
John H. Watson, known as Dr. Watson, is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Along with Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson first appeared in the novel ''A Study in Scarlet'' (1887). The last work by Doyle f ...
warns that if there are further attempts to get at and destroy his private notes regarding his time with Holmes, "the whole story concerning the politician, the lighthouse, and the trained cormorant will be given to the public. There is at least one reader who will understand."
A cormorant is humorously mentioned as having had linseed oil rubbed into it by a wayward pupil during the "Growth and Learning" segment of the 1983 Monty Python movie ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'', also known simply as ''The Meaning of Life'', is a 1983 British musical sketch comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python troupe, directed by Terry Jones. ''The Meaning of Life'' was the last f ...
''.
The cormorant served as the hood ornament
A hood ornament (or bonnet ornament in Commonwealth English), also called, motor mascot, or car mascot is a specially crafted model which symbolizes a car company like a badge, located on the front center portion of the hood. It has been used ...
for the Packard automobile brand.
Cormorants (and books about them written by a fictional ornithologist) are a recurring fascination of the protagonist in Jesse Ball
Jesse Ball (born June 7, 1978) is an American novelist and poet. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short stories, and drawings. His works are distinguished by the use of a spare style and have been compared to those of Jorge Luis Borges ...
's 2018 novel ''Census''.
The Pokémon Cramorant, featured in the 8th generation of the video game series may take its name and design from a cormorant.
The cormorant was chosen as the emblem for the Ministry of Defence Joint Services Command and Staff College
Joint Services Command and Staff College (JSCSC) is a British military academic establishment providing training and education to experienced officers of the Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force, Ministry of Defence Civil Service, and serving offic ...
at Shrivenham. A bird famed for flight, sea fishing and land nesting was felt to be particularly appropriate for a college that unified leadership training and development for the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force.
After a member produced a mock magazine cover from a photograph of roosting Cormorants, the bird became the unofficial mascot of the Pentax Discuss Mailing List with many posts dedicated to discussion of the photography of the species.
https://www.mail-archive.com/search?q=cormorant&l=pdml%40pdml.net
See also
* Anhinga
The anhinga (; ''Anhinga anhinga''), sometimes called snakebird, darter, American darter, or water turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word ''anhinga'' comes from ''a'ñinga'' in the Brazilian Tupi language and means ...
* Cormorant culling
References
Sources
* Benson, Elizabeth (1972): ''The Mochica: A Culture of Peru''. Praeger Press, New York.
* Berrin, Katherine & Larco Museum (1997) ''The Spirit of Ancient Peru: Treasures from the Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera.'' Thames and Hudson
Thames & Hudson (sometimes T&H for brevity) is a publisher of illustrated books in all visually creative categories: art, architecture, design, photography, fashion, film, and the performing arts. It also publishes books on archaeology, history, ...
, New York.
*
* Dorst, J. & Mougin, J.L. (1979): Family Phalacrocoracidae. ''In:'' Mayr, Ernst & Cottrell, G.W. (eds.): ''Check-List of the Birds of the World'' Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Struthioniformes, Tinamiformes, Procellariiformes, Sphenisciformes, Gaviiformes, Podicipediformes, Pelecaniformes, Ciconiiformes, Phoenicopteriformes, Falconiformes, Anseriformes): 163–179. Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge.
* Hope, Sylvia (2002): The Mesozoic radiation of Neornithes. ''In:'' Chiappe, Luis M. & Witmer, Lawrence M. (eds.): Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs: 339–388.
*
* IUCN (2007):
2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
'. IUCN, Gland.
*
*
*
*
* Orta, Jaume (1992): Family Phalacrocoracidae. ''In'': del Hoyo, Josep; Elliott, Andrew & Sargatal, Jordi (eds.): ''Handbook of Birds of the World
The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...
, Volume 1 (Ostrich to Ducks)'': 326–353, plates 22–23. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
* Robertson, Connie (1998)
''Book of Humorous Quotations''
Wordsworth Editions.
*
* Thevet, F. André (1558)
About birds of Ascension Island
''In: Les singularitez de la France Antarctique, autrement nommee Amerique, & de plusieurs terres & isles decouvertes de nostre temps'': 39–40. Maurice de la Porte heirs, Paris.
* van Tets, G. F. (1976): Australasia and the origin of shags and cormorants, Phalacrocoracidae. ''Proceedings of the XVI International Ornithological Congress'': 121–124.
External links
Cormorant videos
on the Internet Bird Collection
*
First video of cormorant deep sea dive
by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Research Council of Argentina
WCS press release, 2012-07-31
{{Authority control
Phalacrocoracidae
Seabirds
Taxa named by Ludwig Reichenbach
Taxa described in 1850
Extant Oligocene first appearances