The biggest ape to ever walk the Earth vanished long ago. The only traces of Gigantopithecus ( ) that we still have are the dusty karst caverns where porcupines ate and scavenged the bones. Fossils were first discovered in a Chinese pharmacy, being sold as traditional medicine. Researchers have accumulated a good amount of information about the giant primates, which were up to four times larger than a human being, as well as the environment in which they inhabited for over 1.7 million year. They are gathering more information about the primate as described in a Nature () study.
The Discovery of Gigantopithecus ( Gigantopithecus)
Ralph von Koenigswald was a Dutch paleontologist who searched for fossils at Chinese drugstores. In 1935, on a visit to Hong Kong, Ralph von Koenigswald found giant teeth that looked like apes in a Chinese drug store. They were sold as traditional medicine. These bones were crushed, and then brewed into a tea. Renaud Joannes-Boyau is an archaeologist who studies human evolution in Australia. Von Koenigswald called the species Gigantopithecus blacki.Joannes Boyau said that they looked like hominins, but were actually five times larger than a human tooth. Von Koenigswald, together with other researchers, traced these teeth and others to caves located in the southeast of China. They did this partly using information published by supply and marketing cooperatives. In the early 1900s, Chinese paleontologists excavated a large number of fossils and teeth near the Vietnam border in southeast China.
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How Gigantopithecus looked like
Oldest Gigantopithecus fossils are 2 million old. Paleontologists only have teeth and jawbones to go on, so it’s hard to say what the apes actually looked like. Researchers have deduced a few basic dimensions of the animals. Joannes-Boyau estimates that they stood between three and four meters high, and weighed anywhere from 200 to 500 kilograms. He says, “We are talking about an extremely large animal.” The residues found on Gigantopithecus’ tooth surfaces indicate that they likely ate a vegetarian diet for most of the time, although insects might have been a part of it occasionally. Joannes-Boyau believes they used their height as leverage to cut off branches from trees to use for eating. They probably couldn’t reach the trees as orangutans could due to their large size. What happened to Gigantopithecus? Joannes-Boyau began working with Yingqi Zhu and Kira Westaway on these fossils in 2016,
. Fieldwork proved challenging, but the results were impressive: The team collected 15,000 fossils from just one cave. The team found between 600 and 700 fossils of Gigantopithecus ( ) alone. Joannes-Boyau, his co-workers, and
Joannes-Boyau in the Nature study analyzed soil residues around fossils and teeth to reveal that the environmental changes began around 300,000 ago. Pollen composition of plants started to change, indicating that tropical forests which had dominated the landscape for 1.7million years were giving way to more grassy patches. The charcoal found in the deposited showed the changes that occurred to the fire regime. There were more pronounced seasonal variations, and this likely had an impact on food availability in certain parts of the calendar year. Joannes-Boyau explains that
It was “a clear change to the environment”.
Species start to change with the environment. As a large-bodied species, Gigantopithecus appears to be the first to disappear. These giant apes probably couldn’t cope with the shift in food supply. Joannes-Boyau states that Gigantopithecus probably ate a great deal of bamboo and sage during this time, as the latter disappeared. Joannes-Boyau explains the importance of teeth from the Gigantopithecus (19459005).
Joannes-Boyau explains that although many fossilized teeth were discovered in karst caverns of this species, it is unlikely they lived in them.
According to him, the giant apes lived in groups like orangutans. Females would stay with babies and younger adults while males were more isolated. Mountain gorillas have a dominant male and a group of females with babies and young adults. It is likely that the remains found in caves were scavenged by porcupines. Signs of their chewing can be seen on several fossils. They have continuously growing, sharp teeth. The skulls of Gigantopithecus and the other remains were likely dragged into caves by these creatures. Joannes-Boyau explains that the result is likely other bones have been chewed in the past, and the teeth of the once great ape are all that remain.
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For our article sources, our writers use high-quality peer-reviewed research and other quality sources. Our editors also review the articles for accuracy and standards of editorial integrity. The sources for this article are listed below:
- Nature. Death of the giant ape Gigantopithecus blacki.
- Physical Anthropology. Gigantopithecus blacki, a giant ape of the Pleistocene in Asia