Gastornis, the "Gaston's Bird," is the unwanted stepchild of the "terror birds." Although it superficially looks like the fearsome predators, it was more closely related to modern waterfowl. This two-meter-tall bird is only a terror to plants! Originally Gastornis was thought to be a carnivore, but the structure of the beak suggests it fed on tough plant matter. However, like the terror birds, Gastornis' skull and beak were huge compared to the rest of its body, though it lacked a raptorial hook on its beak. Its deep lower jaw and strong muscles still gave it a nasty bite, which was used to crack open nuts and seeds. Footprints of Gastornis exhibit a distinct lack of the hooked talons that were so popular among the cooler terror birds. Living from the Paleocene to the Eocene Periods, Gastornis' range was far and wide across the woodlands of Europe, the United States, and China. Its earliest fossils hail from England, where it was the largest tetropod on land. It likely originated there before spreading to China and then North America via the Bering land bridge. Though it coexisted with herbivorous mammals called pantodonts, competition with mammals is often thought to be the reason why they went extinct.