What is Gastornis?
{{italic title}} {{Taxobox | name = ''Gastornis'' | fossil_range = Upper [[Palaeocene]] – Lower [[Eocene]] | image = Gastornis.jpg | image_width = 250px | image_caption = ''Gastornis'' skeleton | regnum = [[Animalia]] | phylum = [[Chordata]] | classis = [[Aves]] | subclassis = [[Neornithes]] | ordo = †[[Gastornithiformes]] | familia = †Gastornithidae<!-- monotypic - don't link --> | genus = †'''''Gastornis''''' | genus_authority = Hébert, 1855<ref name=Prevost/> | subdivision_ranks = [[Species]] | subdivision = }} '''''Gastornis''''', formerly known as '''''Diatryma''''', is an extinct [[genus]] of large flightless [[bird]]s.<ref>In a 1992 survey, Larry Martin did not agree they were the same genus: Martin L.D. 1992. The status of the late Paleocene birds ''Gastornis'' and ''Remiornis''. ''Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, Science Series'' '''36''', 97-108.</ref> They lived in the late [[Paleocene]] and early [[Eocene]] epochs of the [[Cainozoic]]. The first remains were discovered in the mid-19th century.<ref name=Prevost>{{aut|Prévost, Constant}} (1855): Annonce de la découverte d'un oiseau fossile de taille gigantesque, trouvé à la partie inférieure de l'argile plastique des terrains parisiens [Announcement of the discovery of a fossil bird of gigantic size, found in the lower Argile Plastique formation of the Paris region]. ''Les Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences''. '''40''': 554-557 [Article in French]. [http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-2997 PDF fulltext] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913044553/http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/CadresFenetre?O=NUMM-2997 |date=2017-09-13 }} at Gallica.</ref> In the 1870s, the famous American [[paleontologist]] [[Edward Drinker Cope]] discovered another, more complete set of fossils in [[North America]], and named them ''Diatryma''.<ref name=Cope>Cope, Edward Drinker 1876. On a gigantic bird from the Eocene of New Mexico. ''Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia'' '''28''': 10-11.</ref> The fossil remains