What Caused the Mysterious Extinction of Gigantopithecus?

January 21, 2024 2:23 AM

What Caused the Mysterious Extinction of Gigantopithecus, the World's Largest Ape? The massive primates were unable to shift their diet to keep pace with a changing climate, according to a new study, forcing them to eat less nutritious bark and twigs.

Standing nearly ten feet tall and weighing up to 660 pounds, the largest great apes to ever live—called Gigantopithecus blacki—roamed modern-day China for nearly two million years. But despite their lengthy existence and decades of searching by paleontologists, the complete fossil record of the animals consists of a mere four jawbones and roughly 2,000 isolated teeth.

The species, dubbed “Giganto,” has long puzzled scientists—and during the Pleistocene epoch, it mysteriously went extinct.

Now, researchers say prehistoric climate changes may have led to the species’ downfall, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The huge apes, it seems, couldn’t adjust their diets to keep pace with the shifting environment.

posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries (8 comments total)

What Caused the Mysterious Extinction of Gigantopithecus?
The Humungopithecus? Nope. Climate.

But despite their lengthy existence and decades of searching by paleontologists, the complete fossil record of the animals consists of a mere four jawbones and roughly 2,000 isolated teeth.

Oh, I wonder why the fossil record is so sparse? It couldn't be because of porcupines and dragons, could it?

Von Koenigswald, working for the Dutch East Indies Mineralogical Survey on Java, had found the teeth in a drugstore in Hong Kong where they were being sold as "dragon bones" to be used in traditional Chinese medicine. [...]

In 1955, a survey team that was led by Chinese palaeontologist Pei Wenzhong was tasked by the Chinese Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) with finding the original Gigantopithecus locality. They collected 47 teeth among shipments of "dragon bones" in Guangdong and Guangxi. [...]

Indicated by extensive rodent gnawing marks, teeth primarily accumulated in caves likely due to porcupine activity. Porcupines gnaw on bones to obtain nutrients necessary for quill growth, and can haul large bones into their underground dens and consume them entirely, except the hard, enamel-capped crowns of teeth. This may explain why teeth are typically found in great quantity, and why remains other than teeth are so rare.[5]

posted by pracowity at 3:41 AM on January 21 [11 favorites]

and now I'm caught between feuding stories of food shaming (“eat your greens or you'll die out like the Gigantopithecus!”) and a leave-no-trace pact between the last Gigantopithecus and spiny tree beavers.

I'm pretty sure I took my meds this morning …
posted by scruss at 6:47 AM on January 21 [4 favorites]

...forcing them to eat less nutritious bark and twigs

Or perhaps the twigs in question were uncommonly delicious. Call it the Cheese Doodle Hypothesis. wherein a food source is irresistably tasty, but in excess, sick making.
posted by BWA at 12:16 PM on January 21

Humans arrive in Australia & New Guinea 50,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct
Humans arrive in Solomon Islans 30,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct
Humans arrive in Northern Europe 20,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct
Humans arrive in North America 13,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct
Humans arrive in South America 11,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct
Humans arrive in Madagascar 10,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct, plus large birds, croccodiles & turtles
Humans arrive in the Caribbean 6,000 years ago - large mammals go extinct
Humans arrive in Hawaii 1,500 years ago - lots of birds go extinct
Humans arrive in Aotearoa 750 years ago - all large birds go extinct

When did modern humans arrive in China? We're really not that sure. A few hundred thousand years ago.

When did Gigantopithecus go extinct? We're really not that sure. A few hundred thousand years ago.

It's a pretty simple pattern. These extinctions are not down to climate change. Climate change would affect all species. These extinctions of large animals made of tasty tasty meat are down to human hunting.
posted by happyinmotion at 12:43 PM on January 21 [3 favorites]

Humans arrive in...

Nah. I'm going with porcupines. Yeah. It's definitely porcupines, all the way down. Climate change? Humbug! Definitely porcupines.

Anyway, Gigantos are lucky they didn't make it into the Anthropocene.
We'd put 'em all into an ape museum,
And charge all the people
Twenty dollah just to see'um,
posted by mule98J at 2:19 PM on January 21 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure I took my meds this morning

Not me.
posted by y2karl at 5:10 PM on January 21 [2 favorites]

I know you didn't, y2karl, I took yours. It's ok though, you can have mine.
posted by evilDoug at 5:49 PM on January 21

I love how paleoanthropologists are all like "look at this huge jaw, it must be from an ape almost twelve feet tall" instead of "look at this huge jaw, maybe this species had really big jaws". It's like looking at a toucan beak and assuming toucans must have a wingspan of eight feet.
posted by phooky at 7:50 PM on January 21