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17. Okt. 2024 · Great auk, flightless seabird extinct since 1844. It belonged to the family Alcidae (order Charadriiformes) and bred in colonies on rocky islands off North Atlantic coasts. Utterly defenseless, great auks were killed by rapacious hunters for food and bait. The nearest living relatives are the razor-billed auks.
- Razor-billed Auk
Razor-billed auk, (Alca torda), black and white seabird of...
- Auk Family
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28. Feb. 2019 · How much do you know about the Great Auk? Discover ten essential Great Auk facts about the penguin-like bird that went extinct in the 19th century.
- Bob Strauss
The great auk (Pinguinus impennis), also known as the penguin or garefowl, is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus Pinguinus. It is unrelated to the penguins of the Southern Hemisphere, which were named for their resemblance to this species.
Learn about the extinct flightless seabird that was similar to penguins and lived in the North Atlantic. Find out how it looked, what it ate, how it bred, and why it became extinct in the mid-19th century.
- Overview
- Fossil Facts
- References:
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At nearly three feet tall and weighing ten pounds, the Great Auk was the bulkiest member of its family of seabirds. But, despite its name, it wasn’t the largest of all time. Between 8.7 and 4.9 million years ago, there was an even bigger auk.
The bird, named Miomancalla howardae by paleontologist N. Adam Smith in 2011, was found in the Pliocene rock of southern California. It didn’t belong to the same group as modern auks and murres – called alcids – but was on just the next branch over, fitting into a wider group called pan-alcids. A sort of proto-auk, in other words. And in a new analysis of how the body sizes of pan-alcids changed over time, Smith found that Miomancalla howardae significantly surpassed the famous Great Auk in size.
Name: Miomancalla howardae
Meaning: Miomancalla indicates this genus includes relatives of the bird Mancalla that were around during the Miocene, while the species name honors zoologist Hildegarde Howard.
Age: Around 4 million years old.
Where in the world?: The Capistrano Formation of southern California.
What sort of critter?: A bird closely related to alcids, or auks.
Size: About three feet tall and 11.8 pounds.
Smith, N. 2011. Taxonomic revision and phylogenetic analysis of the flightless Mancallinae (Aves, Pan-Alcidae). ZooKeys. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.91.709
Smith, N. 2015. Evolution of body mass in the Pan-Alcidae (Aves, Charadriiformes): the effects of combining neontological and paleontological data. Paleobiology. doi: 10.1017/pab.2015.24
Learn about Miomancalla howardae, the largest auk ever, which lived 4 million years ago in California. Compare its size and features with the Great Auk and other pan-alcids.
- Riley Black
On July 3, 1844, fishermen killed the last confirmed pair of great auks (Pinguinus impennis) at Eldey Island, Iceland. The great auk, was a large flightless bird native to the North Atlantic. It once had a population in the millions.
The Great Auk was the only flightless bird native to the Northern Hemisphere in modern times. Its scientific name, Pinguinus impennis, reflects its penguin-like appearance, though it was not closely related to penguins.
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