The largest ape that ever walked Earth disappeared long ago. In fact, the only traces we have today of Gigantopithecus were left to gather dust in karst caves after porcupines had scavenged and chewed up the rest of their bones. The first time fossils were discovered were in a jar at a Chinese apothecary shop, for sale as traditional medicine.
Since the original 1930s discovery, researchers have built up a decent body of knowledge about these giant primates that were three to four times the size of a modern human, and the changing environment they lived in for 1.7 million years.
But they are still gathering information on the primate, as detailed in a study published in Nature.
The Discovery of Gigantopithecus
Ralph von Koenigswald, a Dutch geologist and paleontologist, made a habit of looking for fossils in Chinese drug stores. On one visit, he found giant ape-looking teeth in a drugstore in Hong Kong in 1935 — they were being sold for traditional medicine. Bones like these were often crushed and brewed in a tea.
“Immediately he realized these were fantastic,” says Renaud Joannes-Boyau, an archaeological scientist who works on human evolution at Southern Cross University in Australia. Von Koenigswald named the species Gigantopithecus blacki.
They appeared hominin-like, but they were five times the size of a modern human tooth, Joannes-Boyau says.
Von Koenigswald and other researchers later traced the teeth, along with others they found, to caves in southeastern China, partly by using records published by local supply and marketing cooperatives.
Excavations by Chinese paleontologists uncovered more teeth in the mid-1900s along with a huge number of other fossils in southeastern China near the border of Vietnam.
Read More: The Largest Ape Stood 10 Feet Tall, But Couldn’t Rise Above Extinction
What Gigantopithecus Looked Like
The oldest Gigantopithecus fossils date back 2 million years. It’s difficult to tell exactly what these apes looked like, since all paleontologists have discovered are teeth and jaw bones. But researchers have still deduced some basic dimensions about the creatures.
Joannes-Boyau says they would have stood three to four meters tall, weighing somewhere between 200 and 500 kilograms.
“We’re talking about a very large animal,” he says.
Residues on the Gigantopithecus teeth have revealed they were likely vegetarians for the most part, though insects may have made up part of their diet occasionally. Joannes-Boyau says they likely used their height to break off tree branches to eat from. Due to their size, they likely couldn’t climb trees like orangutans.
Why Did Gigantopithecus Disappear?
Joannes-Boyau first started working on these fossils with colleagues Yingqi Zhang and Kira Westaway in 2016. The fieldwork was challenging but produced big results — the team gathered 15,000 fossils in just one cave. They found 600 to 700 fossils from Gigantopithecus alone.
In the Nature study, Joannes-Boyau and his colleagues analyzed the soil around the fossil and residues on the teeth, which revealed that around 300,000 years ago, the environment started to change. The pollen make-up of plants began to shift, showing that what had been tropical forest for the past 1.7 million years was giving way to grassier patches.
Analysis of charcoal in the deposits showed how the fire regime changed. Stronger seasonal differences became apparent, which likely affected food availability during some parts of the year.
“Altogether it was a very clear shift to that environment,” Joannes-Boyau says.
Species begin to shift with the environment, and as a large-bodied specialist, Gigantopithecus seems to have been the first species to disappear from the area. The giant apes likely couldn’t handle the seasonal shift of food availability.
Joannes-Boyau says that Gigantopithecus likely ate a lot of bamboo and sage, and the former disappeared during this period.
The Importance of Gigantopithecus Teeth
Joannes-Boyau says that while many of the fossil teeth discovered from Gigantopithecus were found in karst caves, the species likely did not live in caves.
He speculates that the giant apes likely lived in social groups similar to orangutans, where a group of females stayed with younger adults and babies and males were more solitary. Or like mountain gorillas, where social groups have one dominant male, some females and younger adults and babies.
The remains in the caves are likely there because of scavenging from porcupines — signs of their gnawing can be found on a number of fossils. These creatures have sharp, continuously growing teeth. They likely dragged the skulls and other remains of Gigantopithecus into caves.
The result of this, Joannes-Boyau says, is that other bones were likely chewed up in the past — the teeth are the only things left of this once great ape.
Read More: Ancient Ape’s Inner Ears May Hold Key to Evolution of Walking on Two Feet
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