Hydrobatidae
Northern storm petrels are seabirds in the genus Hydrobates in the family Hydrobatidae, part of the order Procellariiformes. The family was once lumped with the similar austral storm petrels in the combined storm petrels, but have been split, as they are not closely related. These smallest of seabirds feed on planktonic crustaceans and small fish picked from the surface, typically while hovering. Their flight is fluttering and sometimes bat-like.

Richard Crossley · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- storm petrelPBDB
- Sits inside
- ProcellariiformesPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Coelurosauria
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, solitaryPBDB, for Theropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- marinePBDB, for Procellariiformes
Time the record covers
At least 7.2 million years on record.
The record covers at least 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 11.63 Mya to 0 Mya.
52 occurrences of Hydrobatidae on record. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
52 occurrences- Miocene4%
- Pliocene1%
- Pleistocene35%
- Holocene60%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
4 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Hydrobatidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 48 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Found in the same rock
471 taxa- Gygis alba18 sites
- Nesofregetta fuliginosa16 sites
- Fregata minor11 sites
- Pterodroma11 sites
- Phaethon rubricauda10 sites
- Puffinus nativitatis10 sites
- Oceanodroma castro9 sites
- Synthliboramphus antiquus9 sites
- Ptychoramphus aleuticus8 sites
- Uria aalge8 sites
- Acrocephalus taiti7 sites
- Anous7 sites
- Ardenna grisea7 sites
- Gallicolumba leonpascoi7 sites
- Ptilinopus insularis7 sites
- Puffinus7 sites
- Sula dactylatra7 sites
- Zapornia atra7 sites
- Branta canadensis6 sites
- Ducula harrisoni6 sites
- Hydrobates leucorhous6 sites
- Melospiza melodia6 sites
- Onychoprion fuscatus6 sites
- Phalacrocorax pelagicus6 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 45 sites for Hydrobatidae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
23 references- Terminal Pleistocene–Holocene Avifauna of San Miguel and Santa Rosa Islands: Identifications of Previously Unidentified Avian Remains Recovered from Fossil Sites and Prehistoric Cave Deposits8
- New prehistoric avifaunas from the Gambier Group, French Polynesia7
- The fossil birds of Henderson Island, Pitcairn Group: natural turnover and human impact, a synopsis7
- Paleornithology of St. Helena Island, South Atlantic Ocean4
- Distribution and provenance of fossil avifauna on San Miguel Island3
- Pleistocene seabirds from Shiriya, northeast Japan: systematics and oceanographic context2
- A zooarchaeological study at Buldir Island, Western Aleutians, Alaska2
- Quaternary fossil fauna of South Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand2
- Prehistoric extinction of birds on Mangaia, Cook Islands, Polynesia2
- Subfossil bird remains on Ascension Island2
- A terrestrial vertebrate palaeontological review of Aldabra Atoll, Aldabra Group, Seychelles1
- Late-Pleistocene avifaunas from Cape Wanbrow, Otago, South Island, New Zealand1
Each of the 52 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 11 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Hydrobatidae
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Richard Crossley
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Hydrobatidae was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itProcellariiformes through timeThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Mathews 1912