Your Daily Fossil

Gastornis 

Mounted specimen located at the  North American Museum of Ancient Life, Utah, USA. 

Reconstruction by Jaime Chirinos. 

When: Paleocene and Eocene (56-40 million years ago)

Where: Europe and North America

What: Gastornis is a giant flightless bird, one of many which roamed the forests of the early Cenozoic.  Gastornis is named after the discoverer of the first specimen. These fossils were found in France by Gaston Planté, who would later go on to become a noted physicist, inventing the lead-acid battery. Gastornis was a very large bird, growing up to 6.5 (~2 meters) tall, slightly shorter than the living ostrich, but much more massive. This robust nature is most evident in the skull; the beak of Gastornis was immense and powerful. These predatory birds are thought to have hunted early mammals, preying on the small horses of the time is one popular reconstruction. Above it is hunting a leptictid, an extinct stem placental mammal. While we do not have transitional avian fossils leading up to Gastornis and its kin, it is known that the group falls within modern birds. They have no close relationship with living terrestrial flightless birds, instead they are allied with the clade Galloanserae, the fowls.