Synthliboramphus

Synthliboramphus is a small genus of seabirds in the auk family from the North Pacific. The genus name Synthliboramphus is from Ancient Greek sunthlibo, "to compress", and rhamphos, "bill". The English name "Murrelet" is a diminutive of "murre", a word of uncertain origins, but which may imitate the call of the common guillemot.

==Taxonomy== The genus Synthliboramphus was introduced in 1837 by the German born naturalist Johann Friedrich von Brandt. The type genus was subsequently designated by George Robert Gray as the ancient murrelet. The genus name combines Ancient Greek sunthlibō meaning "to compress" with rhamphos meaning "bill".