The demise of the giant ape Gigantopithecus blacki.

ABSTRACT: The largest ever primate and one of the largest of the southeast Asian megafauna, Gigantopithecus blacki¹, persisted in China from about 2.0 million years until the late middle Pleistocene when it became extinct^2-4. Its demise is enigmatic considering that it was one of the few Asian great apes to go extinct in the last 2.6 million years, whereas others, including orangutan, survived until the present⁵. The cause of the disappearance of G. blacki remains unresolved but could shed light on primate resilience and the fate of megafauna in this region⁶. Here we applied three multidisciplinary analyses-timing, past environments and behaviour-to 22 caves in southern China. We used 157 radiometric ages from six dating techniques to establish a timeline

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10794149 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature