Gigantopithecus

Lower jaw of Gigantopithecus

• Asia (India, China)

• Gigantopithecus blacki
• Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis
• Gigantopithecus giganteus

Gigantopithecus (from the Greek " giant ape " ) is an extinct genus of primates from the family of great apes ( Hominidae ). The fossils are dated to the Upper Miocene and Middle Pleistocene. Finds from northern India and Pakistan ( Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis ) are considered as 7-8 million years old, finds from China ( Gigantopithecus blacki ), however, are less than 2 million years old, and single Chinese findings were even dating back to only 100,000 years.

Features

According to some scientists Gigantopithecus was great about three meters and thus the largest ape that ever lived. Thus, he would have weighed 300-550 kg. However, no definitive statements about size and weight to meet, since only elements jaw and teeth were found. This clearly surpass in comparison to living primates whose counterparts.

Sites

So far, they found the remains in the south of the People's Republic of China and northern India but also in Pakistan. It is believed that they lived on bamboo because you found some near fossil panda bears, suggesting extensive bamboo resources, and the large teeth and powerful jaws were aligned to the chewing hard plant foods.

The closest relative of Gigantopithecus was probably the much smaller Sivapithecus, who lived in South East Europe, Asia and Africa. The next still living relative is probably the orangutan. But there are also signs that speak for the gorillas as next of kin.

Discovery history

In 1935, the German paleontologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald in Chinese pharmacies, the first teeth of Gigantopithecus, twice as large as that of a gorilla. Earlier, the Chinese used big bones and stones to grind leaves, also have been and are there to powder crushed fossils, the " dragon bones ", have healing effects. 1956 discovered a complete lower jaw.

1985 the American anthropologist Grover Krantz tried to describe Bigfoot as Gigantopithecus blacki. The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature refused to do so, since the taxon was already taken and Krantz could not produce a holotype.