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The largest ape on record was about 10 feet (about 3 meters) tall and weighed almost twice as much as a gorilla. One of the greatest mysteries in paleontology is why and when the legendary colossus, which has captivated people’s imaginations as the “real King Kong,” disappeared.
German-Dutch paleontologist GHR von Königswald first identified Gigantopithecus blackii about a century ago from a large tooth sold as medicinal “dragon bone” in a Hong Kong pharmacy. Approximately 2,000 fossilized teeth and four jaw bones of an extinct species were subsequently unearthed in a cave in southern China.
Now, new research into many of these rare fossils and the caves in which they were discovered is based on preliminary evidence, revealing a chronology that sheds further light on the elusive circumstances surrounding the demise of Gigantopithecus. became.
“The child in us always wants to know about these amazing creatures and what happened to them,” said Renaud-Joanne Boyau, co-author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. I think there are,” he said. Joannes Boyau is a Professor in the School of Science and Engineering at Southern Cross University, Australia.
Zhang Inchee
Many of the caves containing Gigantopithecus fossils have been discovered in the characteristic karst terrain of Guangxi.
The authors say the giant creatures went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago, after the climate became more seasonal and plant-eating primates struggled to adapt to changes in vegetation. thinking.
Kira Westaway, a geochronologist and professor at Australia’s Macquarie University and co-author of the study, said Gigantopithecus lived primarily in rich and diverse forest environments for about 2 million years, before climate change caused their population to decline. It is said that they thrived by eating fruits.
“Around it “We start to see major environmental changes around (700,000 or so) 600,000 years ago, during which we see a decline in the availability of fruit,” she explained.
“Gigant ate a substitute food with low nutritional value. Examination of its tooth structure provided evidence,” Westaway added. “Teeth holes and scratches suggest it was feeding on fibrous foods such as bark and twigs from the forest floor.”
Zhang Inchee
The researchers climbed steep karst mountains to reach the cave.
A team of Chinese and Australian scientists spent nearly a decade collecting sediment samples from 22 caves across a wide area in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which borders Vietnam. Half of the caves contained Gigantopithecus fossils, while half did not.
First, the researchers used several techniques to obtain precise ages for the fossils and deposits. Luminescence dating revealed when the sediment was last exposed to sunlight and deposited in the cave, and U-series dating determined when uranium was incorporated into bone specimens after the animal’s death. This analysis helped the team compile a detailed chronology of the species’ existence.
“Early caves from 2 million years ago have hundreds of teeth, while younger caves near the extinction stage only have three or four teeth,” Westaway said.
The team then analyzed pollen signatures in the sediment samples to understand which plants and trees dominate the landscape. Isotope analysis of elements such as carbon and oxygen in Gigantopithecus teeth helped researchers understand how the animal’s diet changed over time.
Westaway said the team found that the great apes did not adapt well to changing environmental conditions, exhibiting chronic stress and population decline.
“We have a more robust chronology of their lives and when they went extinct. Rather than relying on evidence from one or two caves, we sampled 22 caves over a wide area. , we used six dating techniques to ensure the chronology was accurate. “It’s accurate,” she said.
Kira Westaway/Macquarie University
The excavation site at Mafeng Cave in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, southern China, where the fossils were discovered.
doubts remain
No Gigantopithecus fossils from the neck down have ever been discovered or documented. This is surprising, Westaway said, considering that Gigantopithecus has been roaming parts of Asia for about 2 million years.
According to the authors, great apes never lived in caves. Study co-author Wang Wei, a professor at Shandong University’s Institute of Cultural Heritage in Qingdao, China, said rodents often found their way through small rock cracks in the region’s unique rocky karst terrain. It is believed that the body was taken there.
“Great ape teeth and mandibles (based on discovered fossil evidence) underwent an extremely complex process of death, decomposition, weathering, transport and deposition before being embedded in cave sediments,” he wrote in an email. Explained via email.
“As a result, only a small portion of the hardest part of Gigantopithecus’ body would have become fossilized during its geological history.”
Given the lack of fossils other than the skull, it’s difficult to know exactly what Gigantopithecus looked like. The gorilla’s upper molars were 57.8% larger than the gorilla’s, and its lower molars were 33% larger, and it would have weighed between 440 and 660 pounds (200 and 300 kilograms).
The enormous size of this ape indicates that it likely walked on its fists and lived on the ground. Analysis of proteins found in a Gigantopithecus fossil in November 2019 suggested that its closest living relative is the Bornean orangutan.
Homo erectus, an early ancestor of humans, is known to have lived in northern China and further south in Indonesia, at the same time that this giant ape lived in the forests of what is now southern China.
Wang pointed out that in the Bose Basin, near the cave where the Gigantopithecus fossil was discovered, archaeologists have discovered a large amount of stone tools dating back about 800,000 years. Although scientists have no direct fossil evidence that Homo erectus and great apes coexisted in the region, it is possible that these hominin ancestors had encounters “with great apes,” he said. Ta.