Microcarbo
{{Short description|Genus of birds}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| name = Microcarbo
| image = Microcarbo melanoleucos Austins Ferry 3.jpg
| image_caption = Little pied cormorant
Microcarbo melanoleucos
| taxon = Microcarbo
| authority = Bonaparte, 1856
| type_species= Pelecanus pygmaeus (pygmy cormorant)
| type_species_authority= Pallas, 1773
| subdivision_ranks = Species
| subdivision = See text
| synonyms = Nanocorax (in part)
}}
Microcarbo is a genus of fish-eating birds, known as cormorants, of the family Phalacrocoracidae. The genus was formerly subsumed within Phalacrocorax.
Microcarbo has been recognized as a valid genus by the IOC's World Bird List on the basis of work by Siegel-Causey (1988), Kennedy et al. (2000), and Christidis and Boles (2008).
As suggested by the name, this genus contains the smallest of the world's cormorants. It is also the most basal, having diverged from the rest of the family between 12.8 and 15.4 million years ago.{{Cite journal|date=2014-10-01|title=Classification of the cormorants of the world|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1055790314002334|journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution|language=en|volume=79|pages=249–257|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2014.06.020|issn=1055-7903|last1=Kennedy |first1=Martyn |last2=Spencer |first2=Hamish G. |pmid=24994028 |bibcode=2014MolPE..79..249K |url-access=subscription}}
Taxonomy
The genus Microcarbo was introduced in 1856 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte with the pygmy cormorant as the type species.{{ cite journal | last=Bonaparte | first=Charles Lucien | author-link=Charles Lucien Bonaparte | year=1856 | title=Excusion dans les divers Musées d'Allemagne, de Hollande et de Belgique, et tableaux paralléliques de l'ordre des échassiers (suite)| language=French | journal=Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l'Académie des Sciences | volume=43 | pages=571–579 [577] | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/1211113 }}{{ cite book | editor1-last=Mayr | editor1-first=Ernst | editor1-link=Ernst Mayr | editor2-last=Cottrell | editor2-first=G. William | year=1979 | title=Check-List of Birds of the World | volume=1 | edition=2nd | publisher=Museum of Comparative Zoology | place=Cambridge, Massachusetts | page=163 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16108803 }} The name combines the Ancient Greek mikros meaning "small" with the genus name Carbo that was introduced by Bernard Germain de Lacépède in 1789.{{cite book | last=Jobling | first=James A. | year=2010| title=The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names | publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-1-4081-2501-4 | page=253 | url=https://archive.org/stream/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling#page/n253/mode/1up }}
List of species
{{Species table |genus=Microcarbo |authority-name=Bonaparte |authority-year=1856 |species-count=five|no-note=y|narrow-percent=75}}
{{Species table/row
|name= Crowned cormorant|binomial=Microcarbo coronatus
|image=File:Crowned Cormorant, Phalacrocorax coronatus.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=Wahlberg, |authority-year=1855 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= Cape Agulhas north to Swakopmund along the coast of southern Africa
|range-image=
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies=
}}
{{Species table/row
|name=Little cormorant |binomial=Microcarbo niger
|image=File:Little cormorant (Microcarbo niger) - 20070322.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=Vieillot|authority-year=1817 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= Indian Subcontinent east to Java
|range-image=
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies=
}}
{{Species table/row
|name= Little pied cormorant|binomial=Microcarbo melanoleucos
|image=File:Microcarbo melanoleucos Austins Ferry 3.jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=Vieillot |authority-year=1817 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= New Zealand, from Stewart Island to Northland, mainland Australia, Tasmania and Indonesia
|range-image=File:Little Pied Coromant Range.jpg
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Three subspecies |bullets=on
|M. m. melanoleucos.
|M. m. brevicauda Mayr 1931.
|M. m. brevirostris Gould 1837
}}
}}
{{Species table/row
|name= Pygmy cormorant|binomial=Microcarbo pygmaeus
|image=File:Pygmy Cormorant (19511279462).jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=|authority-year= |authority-not-original=yes
|range= south-east of Europe (east of Italy) and south-west of Asia, in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan
|range-image=File:MicrocarboPygmaeusIUCN.svg
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies=
}}
{{Species table/row
|name=Reed cormorant |binomial=Microcarbo africanus
|image=File:Long-tailed Cormorant - Gambia (31808209174).jpg|image-size=180px |image-alt=
|authority-name=Gmelin, JF |authority-year=1789 |authority-not-original=yes
|range= Africa south of the Sahara, and Madagascar
|range-image=
|range-image-size=180px
|size=
|habitat=
|hunting=
|iucn-status= LC
|population=
|direction=
|subspecies={{Collapsible list |expand=yes |title=Two subspecies |bullets=on
| M. a. africanus (Gmelin, JF, 1789)
| M. a. pictilis (Bangs, 1918)
}}
}}
{{Species table/end}}
- †Serventys' cormorant, Microcarbo serventyorum
References
{{Reflist}}
- Christidis, L., and W. E. Boles. 2008. Systematics and taxonomy of Australian birds. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia.
- Kennedy, M., R. D. Gray, and H. G. Spencer. 2000. The phylogenetic relationships of the shags and cormorants: can sequence data resolve a disagreement between behavior and morphology? Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 17: 345–359.
- Siegel-Causey, D. 1988. Phylogeny of the Phalacrocoracidae. Condor 90: 885–905. Available at [https://web.archive.org/web/20110606205545/http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/Condor/files/issues/v090n04/p0885-p0905.pdf] (Accessed 13 May 2010).
{{Suliformes Genera|S.|state=collapsed}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q128189}}