Microcarbo
| Microcarbo | |
|---|---|
| Little pied cormorant Microcarbo melanoleucos | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Suliformes |
| Family: | Phalacrocoracidae |
| Genus: | Microcarbo Bonaparte, 1856 |
| Type species | |
| Pelecanus pygmaeus (pygmy cormorant) Pallas, 1773 | |
| Species | |
|
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.