Why the real King Kong disappeared from Earth – TabascoHOY.com

 If ever there was a King Kong-like creature, that was the Gigantopithecus. An ape of up to three meters high and between 200 and 500 kilos of weight that certainly holds the title of being the largest that has walked on Earth. However, his imposing physique was not enough to keep him alive. He disappeared without a trace hundred thousand years ago for reasons that have been discussed for scientists. A team of Human Evolution Senckenberg centers in Tübingen and Frankfurt Research believes it has found the explanation. As published in the journal Quaternary International, the “great ape” was not able to adapt to environmental changes.

 

 

 

 Gigantopithecus were discovered in 1935 when a Dutch paleontologist found a rare molar sale in a pharmacy in Hong Kong between fossil “dragon bones”, whose intake of Traditional Chinese Medicine attributes curative powers.

 

 

 

 It is well documented that it was a huge animal, but beyond this, there are many uncertainties about this ancestor extinct orangutan. Their size could vary from 1.8 to 3 meters, and its weight between 200 and 500 kilos. And there are several theories regarding their diet. Some scientists believe that was exclusively vegetarian, while others believe that eating meat and some believe it was limited to bamboo.

 

 

 

 The remains available today are limited to four lower jaws and some teeth, which does not involve too much information to researchers. “This is clearly insufficient to tell whether the animal was bipedal or quadruped or even imagine its proportions,” explains Hervé agency AFP Bocherens, co-author of the study. “But now, we have managed to shed some light on the dark history of the primate.”

 

 

 

 With the help of a team of international researchers, he studied Bocherens tooth enamel giant in order to make inferences about their diet and define potential factors of extinction. To this end, analyzed the stable carbon isotopes in the enamel, which are able to reveal information about the dietary habits of animals even after several million years.

 

 

 

 The results led him to conclude that the animal lived alone in the woods, where he found his food, although it was probably too heavy to climb trees. This was the case in China and Thailand, where the open savannas have been available, in addition to forest landscapes. The research also concluded that the ape was a vegetarian, but not only ate bamboo.

 

 

 

 For researchers, the size of Gigantopithecus and that was limited to a particular type of habitat led to extinction. The families of these apes as the orangutan still retreat into the woods, but have a slow metabolism and can survive with little food. “Because of its size, Gigantopithecus needed a lot of food,” says the researcher. But during the Pleistocene, 2.58 million years to 9,600 years before our era, many forested areas became pastures, “providing enough food for the giant ape.”

 

 

 

 Another alternative theory published last year in the same journal considered the voracious appetite for bamboo ape could put at a disadvantage in the evolutionary race against more skilled human resources and more competitive.

 

 

 

— AVP2