There are many stories about Bigfoot, a huge, human-like creature with lots of hair and large feet, but no scientifically recognized proof of its existence. Things are different with Gigantopithecus blacki, a primate that is probably three meters tall and weighs 250 kilograms. It is also shrouded in many mysteries, but it is clear that it really existed: 2,000 huge fossil teeth and four jawbones found in what is now China prove it.
That’s not much, and therefore little is known about the largest ape to ever live on Earth. Even though the Internet is full of images and even videos, the truth is that “you don’t know what Gigantopithecus blacki looked like,” says Ottmar Kullmer, a paleoanthropologist at the Senckenberg Society for Natural Research in Frankfurt am Main.
A team of Chinese, Australian and US scientists has now at least found out when Gigantopithecus blacki actually became extinct. According to their study, which appears in the current issue of the science journal Nature appeared, the giant ape died out between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago. Researchers are also thinking about the reasons for his disappearance.
“The story of Gigantopithecus blacki is a mystery of paleontology,” says Yingqi Zhang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who was involved in the study, in a joint press release from the universities involved. “Why did such a powerful creature become extinct at a time when other primates managed to adapt and survive?”
The giant ape was far too heavy to climb
The study in Nature, which now fills at least some of the many gaps in the history of the giant primate, is the result of a large-scale project in which experts from various disciplines collaborated. 22 caves in Guangxi, an autonomous region in southern China, were meticulously examined; Remains of the giant ape had been found in half of them, but not in the other. In order to date when Gigantopithecus blacki disappeared, the researchers used various techniques to analyze the age of the fossil remains on the one hand and the age of the sediment layers in the caves on the other.
Once the time window in which the primate became extinct was clear, the researchers were able to think about the causes. “It is very difficult to find out the reason for the extinction of a species. But if you know the time at which the species disappeared, you can reconstruct the environmental conditions at that time and assess how the creature behaved,” says Kira Westaway from Australia’s Macquarie University, according to a press release.
Even before the current study, it was known that Gigantopithecus blacki probably lived in tropical or subtropical forests. “He was a ground dweller,” says Kullmer. “It was too heavy to climb.” The original view that the giant animal primarily fed on bamboo was revised based on analyzes of the fossil teeth. The primate probably also ate other plants, but it was probably a picky food specialist.
Was Gigantopithecus blacki the template for Bigfoot?
In the current study, the researchers found, among other things, through pollen analyzes and a reconstruction of the animal world, that the climate became drier during the extinction of Gigantopithecus blacki and that there were greater differences in the seasons. As a result, the flora and, as a consequence, the food supply for the gigantic monkey have changed, write the authors of the study. The animal probably did not manage to change its eating habits and adapt to the changed offerings. “Gigantopithecus blacki was a distinct specialist compared to more adaptable primates such as the orangutan,” says Yingqi Zhang. And that sealed his fate.
Despite the new findings, not all of the secrets surrounding the giant ape have been revealed since the German paleontologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald discovered the first fossil Gigantopithecus tooth in a pharmacy in Hong Kong in 1935. The huge molar was sold there as a medicine.
For example, why were almost all of the giant ape’s remains found in caves? “There are various possible explanations for this,” says Kullmer. “Either the primates lived in these caves or their remains were carried there by other animals.” And is Gigantopithecus blacki possibly the origin of the Bigfoot legend? Some anthropologists suspect this. But it has not yet been proven.