Gigantopithecus

Gigantopithecus (/dʒaɪˌɡæntoʊpɪˈθikəs, ˈpɪθɪkəs, dʒɪ-/ jy-gan-toh-pih-THEE-kəs, -⁠PITH-ih-kəs, jih-) is an extinct genus of ape that lived in central to southern China from 2 million to approximately 200,000–300,000 years ago during the Early to Middle Pleistocene, represented by one species, Gigantopithecus blacki. Potential identifications have also been made in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, but they could be misidentified remains of the orangutan Pongo weidenreichi. The first remains of Gigantopithecus, two third-molar teeth, were identified in a drugstore by anthropologist Ralph von Koenigswald in 1935, who subsequently described the ape. In 1956, the first mandible and more than 1,000 teeth were found in Liucheng, and numerous more remains have since been found in at least 16 sites. Only teeth and four mandibles are known currently. Oher skeletal elements were likely consumed by porcupines before they could fossilise. Gigantopithecus was once argued to be a hominin, a member of the human line, but it is now thought to be closely allied with orangutans, classified in the subfamily Ponginae.

Gigantopithecus has traditionally been restored as a massive, gorilla-like ape, potentially 200–300 kg (440–660 pounds) when alive, but the few remains make total size estimates highly speculative. The species may have been sexually dimorphic, with males much bigger than females. The incisors are reduced and the canines appear to have functioned like cheek teeth (premolars and molars). The premolars are high-crowned, and the fourth premolar is very molar-like. The molars are the largest of any known ape, and have a relatively flat surface. Gigantopithecus had the thickest enamel by absolute measure of any ape, up to 6 mm (1⁄4 inch) in some areas, though this is only fairly thick when tooth size is taken into account.

Gigantopithecus appears to have been a generalist herbivore of C₃ forest plants, with the jaw adapted to grinding, crushing, and cutting through tough, fibrous plants, and the thick enamel functioning to resist foods with abrasive particles such as stems, roots, and tubers with dirt. Some teeth bear traces of fig family fruits, which may have been important dietary components. It primarily lived in subtropical to tropical forest, and went extinct about 300,000 years ago likely because of the retreat of preferred habitat due to climate change, and potentially archaic human activity. Gigantopithecus has become popular in cryptozoology circles as the identity of the Tibetan yeti or the American bigfoot, apelike creatures in local folklore.

Gigantopithecus blacki was named by anthropologist Ralph von Koenigswald in 1935 based on two third lower molar teeth, which, he noted, were of enormous size (the first was "Ein gewaltig grosser (...) Molar", the second was described as "der enorme Grösse besitzt"), measuring 20 mm × 22 mm (3⁄4 by 7⁄8 inch). The specific name blacki is in honour of Canadian palaeoanthropologist Davidson Black, who had studied human evolution in China and had died the previous year. Von Koenigswald, working for the Dutch East Indies Mineralogical Survey on Java, had found the teeth in a drugstore in Hong Kong where they were being sold as "dragon bones" to be used in traditional Chinese medicine. By 1939, after purchasing more teeth, he determined they had originated somewhere in Guangdong or Guangxi. He could not formally describe the type specimen until 1952 due to his internment by Japanese forces during World War II. The originally discovered teeth are part of the collection of the University of Utrecht. While on Java, with the onset of World War II, von Koenigswald put the Gigantopithecus teeth in a milk bottle and buried them in a friend's backyard before being interned by Japanese forces. After the war, he recovered the fossils and moved to New York City and could not continue research on the subject.

In 1955, a survey team that was led by Chinese palaeontologist Pei Wenzhong was tasked by the Chinese Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) with finding the original Gigantopithecus locality. They collected 47 teeth among shipments of "dragon bones" in Guangdong and Guangxi. In 1956, the team discovered the first in situ remains, a third molar and premolar, in a cave (subsequently named "Gigantopithecus Cave") in Niusui Mountain, Guangxi. Also in 1956, Liucheng farmer Tan Xiuhuai discovered more teeth and the first mandible on his field. From 1957 to 1963, the IVPP survey team carried out excavations in this area including most especially Yanyan Cave and recovered two more mandibles and more than 1,000 teeth. As of 2024^[update], Yanyan Cave is the most productive Gigantopithecus site. In 2014, a fourth confirmed mandible was discovered in Yanliang, Central China. Indicated by extensive rodent gnawing marks, teeth primarily accumulated in caves likely due to porcupine activity. Porcupines gnaw on bones to obtain nutrients necessary for quill growth, and can haul large bones into their underground dens and consume them entirely, except the hard, enamel-capped crowns of teeth. This may explain why teeth are typically found in great quantity, and why remains other than teeth are so rare.

Confirmed Gigantopithecus remains have since been found in 16 different sites across southern China. The northernmost sites are Longgupo [de] and Longgu Cave, just south of the Yangtze River, and southernmost on Hainan Island in the South China Sea. An isolated canine from Thẩm Khuyên Cave, Vietnam, and a fourth premolar from Pha Bong, Thailand, could possibly be assigned to Gigantopithecus, though these could also represent the extinct orangutan Pongo weidenreichi. In 2016, two Gigantopithecus mandibular fragments each preserving the last two molars were reported from Semono [nl] in Central Java, Indonesia. They were collected by a local named Dakri in 2014 who found them at the surface within 4 km² (1.5 sq mi) of the Semono site; they may have been imported from China and left there since Chinese "dragon bones" were commonly sold in Javanese drugstores. The oldest remains date to 2.2 million years ago from Baikong Cave, and the youngest to 295 to 215 thousand years ago from Shuangtan and Gongjishan Caves.

In 1935, von Koenigswald considered Gigantopithecus to be closely allied with the Late Miocene Sivapithecus from India. In 1939, South African palaeontologist Robert Broom hypothesised that it was closely allied with Australopithecus and the last common ancestor of humans and other apes. In 1946, Jewish German anthropologist Franz Weidenreich described Gigantopithecus as a human ancestor as "Gigantanthropus", believing that the human lineage went through a gigantic phase. He stated that the teeth are more similar to those of modern humans and Homo erectus (at the time "Pithecanthropus" for early Javan specimens), and envisioned a lineage from Gigantopithecus, to the Javan ape Meganthropus (then considered a human ancestor), to "Pithecanthropus", to "Javanthropus", and finally Aboriginal Australians. This was part of his polycentric hypothesis, that all modern races and ethnicities evolved independently from a local archaic human species rather than sharing a more recent and fully modern common ancestor. In 1952, von Koenigswald agreed that Gigantopithecus was a hominin, but believed it was an offshoot rather than a human ancestor. Much debate followed whether Gigantopithecus was a hominin or not for the next three decades until the Out of Africa hypothesis overturned the Out of Asia [nl] and multiregional hypotheses, firmly placing humanity's origins in Africa.

Gigantopithecus is now classified in the subfamily Ponginae, closely allied with Sivapithecus and Indopithecus. This would make its closest living relatives the orangutans. However, there are few similar traits (synapomorphies) linking Gigantopithecus and orangutans due to fragmentary remains, with the main morphological argument being its close affinities to Sivapithecus, which is better established as a pongine based on skull features. In 2017, Chinese palaeoanthropologist Yingqi Zhang and American anthropologist Terry Harrison suggested that Gigantopithecus is most closely allied with the Chinese Lufengpithecus which went extinct 4 million years prior to Gigantopithecus.