Plump and tuxedoed, it stood 3 feet tall and had comedically short 6-inch wings. Today, a casual observer could be forgiven for confusing the bird, a great auk, for a penguin. The black-and-white ...

Pictured below is the last remaining specimen of a British great auk, a flightless seabird driven to extinction in the nineteenth century. It is a lesson in what can happen to an ocean-dwelling ...