When you purchase through link on our website , we may gain an affiliate commission . Here ’s how it works .
scientist may have finally address the secret of why the large emulator ever to walk Earth went extinct , with new evidence suggesting the elephantine copycat struggle to adapt to climate modification .
In a new written report published Jan. 10 in the journalNature , scientist found that the largest know high priest , Gigantopithecus blackilikely died out between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago after it failed to adapt its diet or behavior to environmental alteration that began around 700,000 old age ago and put its slow woods habitat in what is nowChinaunder threat .
Artist impression of the giant ape, G. blacki.
G. blackifirst appear about 2 million years ago . It was identified in 1935 by German paleontologist Gustav von Koenigswald after he stumbled upon molars belonging to the species . Since then , researchers have get yard of teeth and a fistful of partial jawbones — but no complete skeleton has ever been recovered .
The demise of this enormous hierarch , which grow up to 10 feet ( 3 beat ) tall and weighed up to 600 pounds ( 270 kilograms ) , has long perplexed palaeontologist as it is one of the few Asian nifty anthropoid to go extinct in the last 2.6 million years .
" The story ofG. blackiis an brain-teaser in palaeontology — how could such a mighty brute go extinct at a time when other hierarch were adapting and surviving ? The unresolved suit of its disappearance has become the Holy Grail in this subject field , " paleontologist and conscientious objector - lead authorYingqi Zhang , a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and
Artist impression of a group ofG. blackiin a forest.
Palaeoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences , said in a argument .
Related : Primates have been masturbating for at least 40 million years
In the new study , the scientists analyzed fossilized tooth remain , pollen records and geological dates to find evidence of the jumbo copycat ’s demise and set up a detailed timeline of its diminution .
Using six different dating technique to study the fossil and sediment from 22 cave site in southerly China , the scientists were able to date the fossil remain and create a comprehensive chronology for the extinction of the jumbo ape .
They find that 2.3 million yr ago , during the late middlePleistocene(2.6 million to 11,700 years ago ) , the giant emulator enjoyed a yield - rich diet and lived in heavy canopy forest . However , around 600,000 to 700,000 years ago , this home ground began to change and gradually become open grassland . Pollen and fogey psychoanalysis show that during this menstruum , the mood and plants became more seasonal and water availability was less ordered as the region start to experience ironical time of year .
During this time , G. blackigot bigger , which increase the amount of food it ask , and mean it was confine to the forest floor , where it likely ate barque when its favored fruits were seasonally unavailable . The giant ape also had a shrink geographic cooking stove for foraging liken with other great ape .
— What did the last common ancestor between homo and apes look like ?
— Rarest dandy ape on Earth could soon go extinct
— Chimps use military tactics only ever seen in mankind before
This home ground change and the ape ’s inability to adjust ultimately doom the species , the researcher launch .
old enquiry propose that the giant copycat went nonextant around 200,000 years ago , but the new data point show the species was already extinct by this time . By 300,000 years ago , its number had plummeted before it vanished all between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago .
" We have a much more full-bodied timeline for their life and when they run extinct , " co - lead author Kira Westaway , a geochronologist at Macquarie University in Australia , told Live Science . " It seems that G. blacki chose an evolutionary path that it could n’t reverse . "
Westaway said translate the demise of G. blacki is of import as there are line of latitude with environmental condition on Earth today . " Going back to retiring unresolved extinctions and determine the cause facilitate us translate why some species are more vulnerable and why others are more resilient , " she say . " This has monumental implication for the conservation efforts for our support primates such as advanced orangutan and mountain gorillas . "
