Paleontologists Might Finally Know Why the Biggest Ape to Ever Live Went Extinct

Amaze Lab

We might fancy ourselves the smartest apes to ever live, but we are certainly not the largest. That honorific goes to the Gigantopithecus blacki, a creature that likely stood nearly 10-feet-tall and weighed upwards of 660 pounds.

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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:03 We might fancy ourselves the smartest apes to ever have

00:06 lived, but we are certainly not the largest.

00:09 That honorific goes to Gigantopithecus blacki,

00:11 a creature that likely stood nearly 10 feet tall

00:14 and weighed upwards of 660 pounds.

00:17 So what happened to this veritable gargantuan?

00:19 Well, according to paleontologist Ying-Ki Zhang,

00:22 it's been somewhat of a mystery.

00:23 But they might finally have figured it out.

00:25 Gigantopithecus went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000

00:30 years ago, based on radiometric dating from the jawbone fossils

00:33 and teeth we have, the only signs of the creature.

00:36 It lived in what is now southern China.

00:38 And based on pollen samples from the time

00:40 the giant ape went extinct, researchers

00:42 are beginning to divine a cause.

00:44 They say that Gigantopithecus thrived in the dense forest

00:47 the area was known for.

00:48 But a changing climate ultimately did them in.

00:51 Those dense, fruit-filled forests

00:52 became more sparse, with grasslands

00:54 taking over many of those areas, meaning less diverse foods

00:57 to eat.

00:58 And fossil records indicate chronic stress

01:00 as nutrition became more difficult in a changing world.

01:03 And for a creature as large as Gigantopithecus was,

01:05 food is always going to be number one.

01:09 (light music)

01:12 (bells chiming)

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