Gastornis
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| phylum | Chordata | Gastornis is an extinct genus of large flightless bird that lived during the late Paleocene and Eocene epochs of the Cenozoic. It was named in 1855, after Gaston Planté, who had discovered the first fossils in Argile Plastique formation deposits at Meudon near Paris (France). In the 1870s, the famous American paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope discovered another, more complete set of fossils in North America, and named them Diatryma gigantea, but this species is considered to belong to Gastornis today. G. gigantea could grow to the size of the largest moas, and reached about 2m (6ft 7in) in maximum height.
For more information, visit the Wikipedia entry. Get back to Gastornithiformes |
| clade | Diapsida | |
| Class | Aves | |
| order | †Gastornithiformes | |
| family | †Gastornithidae | |
| genus | †Gastornis | |
| species | †G. gigantea | |
| Temporal range | Late Paleocene to Middle Eocene |
