Yelkouan Shearwater - Systematics

Systematics

It was formerly considered a subspecies of the Manx Shearwater; see there for more on the Puffinus puffinus superspecies. After the first split, it was the nominate subspecies of the so-called "Mediterranean Shearwater" for nearly ten more years; it is considered a monotypic species nowadays, as the Balearic form mauretanicus has been separated as Balearic Shearwater.

The Yelkouan Shearwater appears to belong to a group of Mediterranean and adjacent Atlantic shearwaters which includes the Balearic Shearwater and one to three prehistorically extinct taxa, Hole's and possibly also Olson's Shearwater as well as an undescribed population of uncertain distinctness from Menorca. The two living Mediterranean lineages had probably separated before the end of the Pliocene (c.2 million years ago), as indicated by molecular differences and putative direct ancestor of the Balearic Shearwater, the Ibizan fossil Puffinus nestori from the Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene.