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 ...

IN your last issue (p. 412), I observe a letter from Prof. Newton, in which he gives his version of the history of the egg of this extinct bird, which was recently sold by auction for £315.

Great auks (Pinguinus impennis) were large flightless birds that thrived on rocky islands in the North Atlantic for thousands of years. However, humans hunted them to extinction within just a few ...

Coming Up Next now playing Natural Histories How genome editing could bring back the great auk Viscount Matt Ridley discusses the technological potential to bring back extinct species 8 mins ...