Booby

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Booby

The Booby, a type of seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adaptation to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behavior and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding ecological niche have resulted in similar adaptations....
, is part of the family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
Sulidae

Sulidae

The bird family Sulidae comprises the gannets and booby. Both groups are medium-large coastal seabirds that plunge-dive for fish. The species in this family are often considered congeneric, placing all in the genus Sula....
and the genus

Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
Sula. It is closely related to the gannet

Gannet

Gannets are seabirds in the family Sulidae, closely related to the Booby.The gannets are large black and white birds, with long pointed wings and long bills....
s (Morus), which were often included in Sula in former times.

Boobies are large birds, with long pointed wings and long bills. They hunt fish

Fish

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The Booby, a type of seabird

Seabird

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
Sulidae

Sulidae

Genus

Gannet

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
, by diving from a height into the sea and pursuing their prey underwater. Facial air sacs, under their skin, cushion the impact with the water. Boobies are colonial breeders on islands and coasts. They normally lay one or more chalky-blue eggs, on the ground or sometimes in a tree nest.

Their name is possibly based on the Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
slang

Slang

Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language....
term bobo, meaning "dunce

Dunce cap

A dunce cap, also variously known as a dunce hat, dunce's cap, or dunce's hat, is a pointy hat. In popular culture, it is typically made of paper and often marked with a D or the word "dunce", and given to schoolchildren to wear as punishment by public humiliation for misbehaviour and, as the name implies, stupidity....
", as these tame birds had a habit of landing on-board sailing ships, where they were easily captured and eaten. Owing to this, Boobies are often mentioned as having been caught and eaten by shipwrecked sailors, notably Captain Bligh

William Bligh

Vice-Admiral William Bligh Fellow of the Royal Society Royal Navy was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. The notorious Mutiny on the Bounty occurred during his command of HMS Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift by the mutineers in the Bounty's l...
of the Bounty and his loyalists, during their famous voyage after being set adrift by Fletcher Christian and his mutineers.

Systematics and evolution

Five of the six extant Sulidae species called "boobies" are in the genus Sula, while the three gannets are usually treated in the genus Morus
Gannet

Gannets are seabirds in the family Sulidae, closely related to the Booby.The gannets are large black and white birds, with long pointed wings and long bills....
. Abbott's Booby

Abbott's Booby

The Abbott?s Booby is a large endangered seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. Found normally only on and around Christmas Island , it is the sole member of the genus Papasula....
was formerly included in Sula but is now placed in a monotypic genus Papasula which represents an ancient lineage perhaps closer to Morus.

Some authorities consider that all nine species should be considered congeneric in Sula. However, they are readily told apart, by means of osteology

Osteology

Osteology is the science of bone. A subdiscipline of anthropology and archeology, osteology is a detailed study of the structure of bones, skeletal elements, teeth, morphology , function, disease, pathology, the process of ossification , the resistance and hardness of bones , etc....
. The distinct lineages of gannets and boobies are known to have existed in such form, since at least the Middle Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
, c.15 mya

Mya (unit)

In astronomy, geology, and paleontology, mya or "m.y.a." is an abbreviation for "million years ago". Like the related unit bya, mya is traditionally written in lower case....
(Olson 1985).

The fossil records of boobies are not as well documented as that of the gannets; possibly because the species of boobies were less numerous in the late Miocene

Miocene

Pliocene

The Pliocene epoch is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5.332 million to 1.806 million years before present.The Pliocene is the second epoch of the Neogene period in the Cenozoic era....
, when gannets had their highest diversity or due to the more tropical distribution of boobies, many fossil species have simply not been found yet, as most localities are in continental North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
or Europe

Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
.

Genus: Sula

Blue-footed Booby
Blue-footed Booby

The Blue-footed Booby is a bird in the Sulidae family which comprises ten species of long-winged seabirds.The name ?booby? comes from the Spanish term bobo, which means "Stupid"....
, Sula nebouxii
Peruvian Booby
Peruvian Booby

The Peruvian Booby, Sula variegata, is an endemism bird of the Peruvian current whose distribution is restricted to the west coast of South America from Punta Pari?as in Peru to Concepci?n, Chile in Chile ....
, Sula variegata
Masked Booby
Masked Booby

The Masked Booby, Sula dactylatra, is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. This species breeds on islands in tropical oceans, especially on the Galapagos islands, except in the eastern Atlantic; in the eastern Pacific it is replaced by the Nazca Booby, Sula granti, which was formerly regarded as a subspecies of Masked Booby...
, Sula dactylatra

Tasman Booby
Tasman Booby

The Danini Booby was a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae, described from bones found on Norfolk Island and Lord Howe Islands in the Tasman Sea ....
, Sula (dactylatra) tasmani - possibly extinct
Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the death of every member of a species or group of taxon. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that species ....
(c.1790?)

Nazca Booby
Nazca Booby

The Nazca Booby, Sula granti, is a booby which is found in the eastern Pacific Ocean, namely on the Gal?pagos Islands where it can be seen by ecotourism, and on Clipperton Island....
, Sula granti (formerly S. dactylatra granti)
Red-footed Booby
Red-footed Booby

The Red-footed Booby, Sula sula, is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. They are powerful and agile fliers, but they are clumsy in takeoffs and landings....
, Sula sula
Brown Booby
Brown Booby

The Brown Booby is a large seabird of the gannet family, Sulidae. The adult brown booby reaches about 76 cm. in length. Its head and upper body are covered in dark brown, with the remainder being a contrasting white....
, Sula leucogaster

Sula humeralis (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Middle Pliocene)
Sula sulita (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Pisco Late Miocene of Peru)
Sula magna (fossil
Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
; Pisco Late Miocene/Early Pliocene of Peru)

Placement of "Sula" ronzoni (Early Oligocene of Ronzon, France) in this genus (and indeed in the Sulidae) is uncertain; it was initially described as a Mergus
Mergus

Mergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the seaduck subfamily . The Hooded Merganser, often termed Mergus cucullatus, is not of this genus but closely related....
sea-duck, but this is incorrect. Later, it was proposed to be related to cormorant

Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of Genus is disputed....
s and the genus Prophalacrocorax was erected for it; this is erroneous (Olson 1985).

Booby

Systematics and evolution

Genus: Sula

See also

External links