''Nannopterum'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of cormorant comprising three species. They are found throughout the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. Along with th ...

, hence the common name American cormorants. These species were formerly classified in the genus '' Phalacrocorax''. A molecular phylogenetic study of the cormorants published in 2014 found that these three species formed a clade that was

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a family, familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...

to the genus ''

Leucocarbo ''Leucocarbo'' is a genus of birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae with the members commonly known as blue-eyed shags. This is a group of closely related cormorant taxa. Many have a blue, purple or red ring around the eye (not a blue iris); othe ...

''. To create monophyletic genera, the three species were moved the resurrected genus ''Nannopterum'' that had been introduced in 1899 by English ornithologist

Richard Bowdler Sharpe Richard Bowdler Sharpe (22 November 1847 – 25 December 1909) was an English zoologist and ornithologist who worked as curator of the bird collection at the British Museum of natural history. In the course of his career he published several mo ...

to accommodate 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 ...

. The genus ''Nannopterum'' is thought to have split from ''Leucocarbo'' between 6.7 - 8.0 million years ago. The genus name ''Nannopterum'' combines the

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 ...

''nannos'' meaning "dwarf" with ''pteron'' meaning "wing". This name was coined for the

, which does indeed have small wings. Genetic studies have found that the

neotropic The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bioge ...

and double-crested cormorants form a clade with the flightless cormorant, and they are thus placed together in the genus ''Nannopterum'' despite both species having normal-sized wings and full flight capabilities.

List of species

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20719749 Bird genera Taxa named by Richard Bowdler Sharpe