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Description
The Great Auk, Alca (or Pinguinis) impennis. This was actually the original 'penguin'. At least, 'pinguin' was one of its common names. Later when sailors encountered actual penguins, they called them by the same name because of how similar they looked to the auks the (European) sailors were familiar with. But the Great Auk was not a close relative of penguins. It, as well as other auks, was the northern ecological counterpart of the penguins of the southern oceans. Many auks still remain, including the familiar and beloved Puffins. But all living auks can fly. The Greak Auk could not. It was also much larger than the other auks, reaching about 5 kg in weight and 85 cm in height, about the same as an average-ish penguin. The largest remaining auk, the Thick-billed Murre, reaches just over a kilogram. But living auks still use their wings both for flying and for swimming. The Great Auk specialized on the swimming and so lost the ability to fly. And this is what made it vulnerable. It was exterminated by humans, who ate its eggs and flesh, used its oil and downy feathers, or even used it for fish bait. The last ones known were killed to become museum specimens in 1844. But before this persecution started, it was abundant, nesting on islands in the Atlantic Ocean that were free of mammalian predators, and fishing in the surrounding waters, from off Spain and France to Great Britain and Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and the Eastern shores of North America. In earlier periods it even occurred in the Mediterranean and as far south as Florida. It sucessfully existed for about a million years, as had other similar large, flightless auks going as far back as the Miocene, so its way of life was viable and it was very well adapted - and the continued existence of penguins today show that indeed the lifestyle is still viable. If it wasn't for us, it wouldn't be gone.

Description
The Great Auk, Alca (or Pinguinis) impennis. This was actually the original 'penguin'. At least, 'pinguin' was one of its common names. Later when sailors encountered actual penguins, they called them by the same name because of how similar they looked to the auks the (European) sailors were familiar with. But the Great Auk was not a close relative of penguins. It, as well as other auks, was the northern ecological counterpart of the penguins of the southern oceans. Many auks still remain, including the familiar and beloved Puffins. But all living auks can fly. The Greak Auk could not. It was also much larger than the other auks, reaching about 5 kg in weight and 85 cm in height, about the same as an average-ish penguin. The largest remaining auk, the Thick-billed Murre, reaches just over a kilogram. But living auks still use their wings both for flying and for swimming. The Great Auk specialized on the swimming and so lost the ability to fly. And this is what made it vulnerable. It was exterminated by humans, who ate its eggs and flesh, used its oil and downy feathers, or even used it for fish bait. The last ones known were killed to become museum specimens in 1844. But before this persecution started, it was abundant, nesting on islands in the Atlantic Ocean that were free of mammalian predators, and fishing in the surrounding waters, from off Spain and France to Great Britain and Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and the Eastern shores of North America. In earlier periods it even occurred in the Mediterranean and as far south as Florida. It sucessfully existed for about a million years, as had other similar large, flightless auks going as far back as the Miocene, so its way of life was viable and it was very well adapted - and the continued existence of penguins today show that indeed the lifestyle is still viable. If it wasn't for us, it wouldn't be gone.