At three meters high, the Gigantopithecus monkey pales in comparison to King Kong, a creature several dozen meters high. However, the species, now extinct, has not usurped its giant name. According to a study published this Wednesday, the great ape (in the literal sense) thrived in the forests of Asia before being wiped off the face of the Earth more than 200,000 years ago, for lack of knowledge. adapt to changes in their environment.
Analysis of fossilized teeth
The extinction of the largest primate of all time – 3 meters, 200 to 300 kg – was one of the great enigmas of paleontology since the discovery of the first traces of the beast in the 1930s. “Gigantopithecus blacki” does not left behind only a few jaws and teeth, found by the hundreds in caves in Guangxi province, in southern China.
But despite ten years of excavations, scientists were unable to determine when and why the species became extinct, explains Professor Yingqi Zhang of the Institute of Paleontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, co-author of the study. . Rather than investigating site by site, a team of Chinese, Australian and American scientists worked on a set of 22 caves in China – some of which had never been excavated before – containing fossilized teeth: some of the oldest, dating back 2 million years ago, at the most recent, around 250,000 years ago.
The vast period of glacial cycles
They combined six different dating methods, including luminescence analysis of sediments, which allows us to know when these deposits were last exposed to daylight. But also the dating of pollens, valuable clues to the evolution of vegetation, all in order to “have a complete chronology of the environment of each site, including those where Gigantopithecus blacki no longer appeared”, explains Professor Joannes-Boyau, expert in geochemistry.
Their results made it possible to determine a “window of extinction” for the species: between 295,000 years and 215,000 years. This corresponds to a vast period of glacial cycles called the Middle Pleistocene, where the planet experienced global cooling. Consequence: in the lush tropical forests where the colossus thrived, more contrasting seasons have “transformed the vegetation and led to periods of fruit shortage”, deciphers researcher Kira Westaway from Macquarie University in Australia, also a co-author.
A disabling size
Gigantopithecus blacki, which lived on the ground, saw its foraging area become sparser and resorted to bark and twigs. “He made a huge mistake by specializing in these emergency foods, which are very fibrous and less nutritious,” explains Yingqi Zhang in an interview with AFP in Beijing.
Its excessive size hampered the agility necessary to find more varied resources. This handicap has only gotten worse because “surprisingly, his size has increased” over time, notes Kira Westaway. Suffering from “chronic long-term stress” – which can be seen in the teeth – the population gradually reduced and the species ended up becoming extinct… Because large size is not always synonymous with ‘a great survival. A lesson that Kong also learned the hard way in Peter Jackson’s film, released in 2005.