"Gastornis parisiensis" measured on average 1.75 metres (5.7 ft) tall, but large individuals grew up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall. "Gastornis" had a huge beak with a slightly hooked top, which possibly suggests that it was carnivorous. "Gastornis" had large powerful legs. It had large feet with small talons. Fossil footprints suggest it was a herbivore.
Although North American and Europe were separated by the end of the Cretaceous, there must have been a landbrige still in place somewhere. This is because the European and North American "Diatryma"s were so similar. Other bird and mammal genera also occur on both sides of the (present-day) North Atlantic in the Palaeocene and Eocene. This is evidence that Europe and North America were once connected by dry land in part of the early Cainozoic.
At its time, the environment where "Gastornis" lived had dense forest and a moist to dry subtropical or even tropical climate. North America and Europe were still rather close, and Greenland probably was covered with lush woodland and grassland. Only narrow straits of a few 100 km at most would have blocked landbound dispersal of the "Gastornis" ancestors. Land in North American was connected. Their European range was an archipelago, with the Alpsbuilding up, and high sea levels in the Paleocene and Eocene. Geographically, it was roughly similar to today's Indonesia.
"Gastornis" has been depicted as predatory. However, some doubt the bird was agile enough to catch fast-moving prey, and have doubts about the beak being right for carnivory. It may be that "Gastornis" was an ambush hunter, or used pack hunting techniques to pursue or ambush prey. If "Gastornis" was a predator, it would have needed some means of hunting prey through the dense forest.
Alternatively, they may have been mainly scavengers, omnivores or even herbivores. The large beak of "Gastornis" would have been suited for crushing seeds and tearing off vegetation. But it seems too strong for a purely vegetarian diet. Regardless of what these birds ate, the beak may have been used also for social display – its presence in all known fossils argues against a sexual display role. These contradicting hypotheses, which can't be separated by the evidence, make the paleobiology of "Gastornis" unclear.
Similar gigantic birds of the Cenozoic were the South American terror birds (phorusrhacids) and the Australian mihirungs ("Dromornis"). The former were certainly carnivorous, and the latter are suspected of being predators, too. On the other hand, ratites, the flightless giant birds of our time, feed on plants, small vertebrates, and invertebrates.
"Gastornis" were among the largest, if not "the" largest birds alive during the Paleogene. They had few natural enemies and serious competitors. If these huge birds were active hunters, they must have been important apex predators which dominated the forest ecosystems of North America and Europe until the middle Eocene.
The mid-Eocene saw the rise of large creodont and mesonychid predators in Eurasia and North America. The appearance of these new predators coincides with the decline of "Gastornis" and its relatives. This was possibly due to an increased tendency of mammalian predators to hunt together in packs (especially in the hyaena-like creodonts). We know of no bird which weighed more than half a metric ton. Perhaps they could not evolve to larger sizes. If so, they could not compete by sheer bulk as mammals are often able to do.
In late Paleocene deposits of Spain and early Eocene deposits of France, shell fragments of huge eggs have turned up in Provence. These are presumably from "Gastornis".
Some of these fragments were complete enough to reconstruct a size of 24 by 10 cm (about 9.5 by 4 inches) with shells 2.3–2.5 mm (0.09–0.1 in) thick. This is roughly half again as large as an ostrich egg, and very different in shape from the more rounded ratite eggs.
Lead(II) oxide
Lead(II) oxide, also known as plumbous oxide and litharge, is a chemical compound. Its chemical formula is PbO. It has lead in the +2 oxidation state. It also contains oxide ions.
It is a yellow or red solid. When it is heated with charcoal it makes liquid lead metal. It is a crystalline solid. It is highly toxic since it has lead in it. It reacts with acids to make other lead(II) salts and bases to make plumbites.
It can be made by heating lead strongly in air. It can be also made by heating lead carbonate or lead nitrate.
It is made when lead is taken from its ores. The lead sulfide in galena is changed to lead(II) oxide, which is heated with charcoal to make liquid lead. It is used to make lead glass. It used to be used in lead paint.
Yoshihiro Tajiri
Yoshihiro Tajiri (born September 29, 1970 in Tamana, Kumamoto, Japan) is a Japanese professional wrestler who is best known for wrestling with WWF/E and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). Tajiri is currently wrestling on the independent circuit under SMASH.
Tajiri has won many belts with different wrestling promotions:
Lead(II,IV) oxide
Lead(II,IV) oxide, also known as lead tetroxide, minium, red lead, or triplumbic tetroxide, is a chemical compound. It contains some lead atoms in the +2 oxidation state and some in the +4 oxidation state. It is used in batteries, paints, and glass. It dissolves in acids. It is made by heating lead(II) oxide in air. It is toxic because it contains lead.
Its formula is Pb3O4. It is commonly said "Sandur".
Flightless birds
Flightless birds are birds which cannot fly. They rely on their ability to run or swim, and have evolved from their flying ancestors. There are about 60 species living today, the best known being the ostrich, emu, cassowary, rhea, kiwi, and penguin.
Two key differences between flying and flightless birds are the smaller wing bones of flightless birds and the absent (or greatly reduced) keel on their breastbone. The keel anchors muscles needed for wing movement. Flightless birds also have more feathers than flying birds.
New Zealand has more species of flightless birds (including the kiwis, several species of penguins, and the takahe) than any other country. One reason is that until the arrival of humans a thousand years ago, there were no large land predators in New Zealand. The main predators of flightless birds were larger birds.
Some flightless varieties of island birds are closely related to flying varieties. This implies that flight is a significant biological cost. As soon as birds do not need to fly, there is selection against flight.
The smallest flightless bird is the Inaccessible Island Rail (length 12.5 cm, weight 34.7 g). The largest (both heaviest and tallest) living flightless bird, is the Ostrich (2.7 m, 156 kg), although some extinct birds grew to larger sizes.
Flightless birds are easy to take care of in captivity because they do not have to be caged. Ostriches were once farmed for their decorative feathers. Today they are raised for meat and for their skins, which are used to make leather.
There were also other families of flightless birds, such as the now extinct Phorusrhacidae, that evolved to be very powerful terrestrial predators.
A flightless bird is one which has descended from ancestors which had the power of flight. It may seem strange that one of the commonest adaptations in birds is the loss of flight! To understand it one has to understand what the main benefits of flight are to animals which once had been confined to land.