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Magazine article
Giant ‘kings of apes’ once roamed southern China. We solved the mystery of their extinction
The Conversation
11/01/2024
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Abstract
Giant creatures are usually associated with dinosaurs, woolly mammoths or mystical beasts. But if you go back though the human lineage you’ll find a very distant relative that stood three metres tall and weighed around 250 kilograms. This was Gigantopithecus blacki, the mightiest of all the primates and one of the biggest unresolved mysteries in palaeontology.
Despite surviving for nearly two million years in what is now the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of southern China, the entire species is represented in the fossil record only by a few thousand teeth and four jawbones. Nothing from the neck down.
Added to that is its mysterious disappearance from the fossil record at a time when other primates were flourishing. Where did the giants go and what brought them down?
Since 2015, a team of Chinese, Australian and US scientists has been chasing this mighty beast in the distinctive terrains of southern China. Our findings are published in Nature today and reveal a story of seasonality, stress and vulnerability.
Details
- Title
- Giant ‘kings of apes’ once roamed southern China. We solved the mystery of their extinction
- Creators
- Kira Westaway - Macquarie UniversityMarian Bailey - Southern Cross UniversityRenaud Joannes-Boyau - Southern Cross University, ScienceSimon Haberle - Australian National UniversityYingqi Zhang - Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Publication Details
- The Conversation
- Publisher
- The Conversation Media Group Ltd
- Identifiers
- 991013180412802368
- Academic Unit
- Faculty of Science and Engineering; Science
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Magazine article