Gigantopithecus: The Largest Ape That Ever Lived

Wikimedia CommonsThe elusive Gigantopithecus blacki could have weighed almost 600 pounds.

Maybe Bigfoot doesn’t exist — or maybe he does. But in any case, a similarly gigantic beast did once walk the earth. Gigantopithecus blacki, a prehistoric giant ape, could give Bigfoot a run for his money.

Like Bigfoot, however, G.blacki is elusive. Scientists have few fossils of them, and the ones they do have are mostly of teeth and pieces of the great ape’s jaw. Even from that, researchers have drawn some stunning conclusions, however.

G.blacki, they believe, stood around 10 feet tall and could weigh almost 600 pounds. A likely ancestor of today’s orangutans, the ape lived in Southeast Asia for about six to nine million years before going extinct some 100,000 years ago.

Based on its teeth — nearly 2,000 large molars, canines, and other teeth have been found — researchers suspect that G.blacki ate a vegetarian diet. These ancient animals likely consumed plants, fruits, seeds, and maybe even bamboo.

Wikimedia CommonsThough scientists have found few fossils, they have come across a number of the ape’s jaws and teeth.

However, G.blacki‘s diet may have doomed it to extinction. While most prehistoric animals of its time foraged in both the forest and grasslands, the apes stuck to the forests.

As the forests shrank, so did their food supply. Seemingly unable to adapt — and unwilling to leave the safety of the woods — the giant apes died out.

In fact, it wasn’t until 1935 that modern-day humans got a whiff of G.blacki‘s existence. Then, a German paleontologist named Gustav von Koenigswald came across some of the ape’s teeth in China. Sold as “dragon teeth,” they suggested to many scientists that humans had had a giant ancestor.

Instead, they came across the giant ape — and a giant mystery. Hopefully more fossils of G.blacki will be uncovered in the future.

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