The first Europeans arrived in North America with a landscape so different from today that it featured extinct animals most of us wouldn’t even recognize. Not exactly dinosaurs, but definitely nothing like most wildlife we know of today.

Those extinct species spanned from bears to butterflies. Sadly, most of them were hunted since it was a different time. Some were taken for food, some for clothing, while some were even used for housing or weapons.

You’d have to visit a museum to see these extinct creatures but here’s a list for you!

Great Auk

This flightless seabird lived along the East Coast of both the United States and Canada, including Iceland, Greenland, and the British Isles.

The last pair of nesting great auks passed in 1844. Hunters captured and killed these birds in Iceland nd stepping on their egg. It was in 1852 when a living great auk was last spotted.

The great auk spent a lot of time in the water, coming ashore just to breed. They stood out from penguins which made it easy for hunters who killed them for their meat and feathers.