Editing Great auk (section)

===Preserved specimens===
[[File:Alca impennis 3.jpg|left|thumb|Specimen No. 39, skeleton, and replica egg at [[Senckenberg Museum]]]]

Today, 78 skins of the great auk remain, mostly in museum collections, along with approximately 75 eggs and 24 complete skeletons. All but four of the surviving skins are in summer plumage, and only two of these are immature. No hatchling specimens exist. Each egg and skin has been assigned a number by specialists.<ref name=Fuller2003/> Although thousands of isolated bones were collected from nineteenth century [[Funk Island]] to [[Neolithic]] [[midden]]s, only a few complete skeletons exist.<ref>{{cite book |last=Luther |first=Dieter |title=Die ausgestorbenen Vögel der Welt |edition=4th |series=Die neue Brehm-Bücherei |volume=424 |publisher=Westarp-Wissenschaften |place=Heidelberg, DE |year=1996 |pages=78–84 |isbn=3-89432-213-6 |language=de}}</ref> Natural mummies also are known from Funk Island, and the eyes and internal organs of the last two birds from 1844 are stored in the [[Zoological Museum, Copenhagen]]. The whereabouts of the skins from the last two individuals has been unknown for more than a hundred years, but that mystery has been partly resolved using DNA extracted from the organs of the last individuals and the skins of the candidate specimens suggested by [[Errol Fuller]]<ref name=Fuller2003/> (those in [[Übersee-Museum Bremen]], [[Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences]], [[Zoological Museum of Kiel University]], [[Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History]], and [[Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch Oldenburg]]). A positive match was found between the organs from the male individual and the skin now in the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences in Brussels. No match was found between the female organs and a specimen from Fuller's list, but authors speculate that the skin in [[Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal|Cincinnati Museum of Natural History and Science]] may be a potential candidate due to a common history with the Los Angeles specimen.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Thomas |first1=Jessica E. |last2=Carvalho |first2=Gary R. |last3=Haile |first3=James |last4=Martin |first4=Michael D. |last5=Castruita |first5=Jose A. Samaniego |last6=Niemann |first6=Jonas |last7=Sinding |first7=Mikkel-Holger S. |last8=Sandoval-Velasco |first8=Marcela |last9=Rawlence |first9=Nicolas J. |date=2017-06-15 |title=An 'Aukward' Tale: A Genetic Approach to Discover the Whereabouts of the Last Great Auks |journal=Genes |language=en |volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=164 |doi=10.3390/genes8060164 |pmc=5485528 |pmid=28617333 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:Great auk in winter plumage and organs of last two birds.jpg|upright|thumb|Great auk in winter plumage (No. 24, one of four in existence) and the internal organs of the last two great auks, [[Natural History Museum of Denmark]]]]
Following the bird's extinction, remains of the great auk increased dramatically in value, and auctions of specimens created intense interest in [[Victorian era|Victorian]] Britain, where 15 specimens are now located, the largest number of any country.<ref name=Fuller2003/> A specimen was bought in 1971 by the Icelandic Museum of National History for £9000, which placed it in the [[Guinness Book of Records]] as the most expensive stuffed bird ever sold.<ref>Guinness Book of Records 1972.</ref> The price of its eggs sometimes reached up to 11 times the amount earned by a skilled worker in a year.<ref name=Cokinos2000/>{{rp|page=331}} The present whereabouts of six of the eggs are unknown. Several other eggs have been destroyed accidentally. Two mounted skins were destroyed in the twentieth century, one in the [[Mainz]] Museum during the [[Second World War]], and one in the Museu Bocage, [[Lisbon]] that was destroyed by a fire in 1978.<ref name=Fuller2003/>