Smithsonian: Did Bigfoot Really Exist? How Gigantopithecus Became Extinct

A reconstruction of Gigantopithecus. Image courtesy of Flickr user Sam_Wise

 "...at to the lowest degree i dental study indicates Gigantopithecus developed too matured rattling slowly—a sign they in all likelihood had depression reproductive rates, which tin nurture a species’ ask chances of going extinct. --Smithsonian

One our favorite places to take in is the Hominid Hunting department at the Smithsonian Blog. At Bigfoot Lunch Club nosotros believe hominids too anthropology acquire hand-in-hand with Bigfoot research. Sometimes the dot where these sciences cross paths is so stark that an establishment entertains questions nosotros (Bigfoot enthusiast) inquire ourselves.

Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 reminder:  In 1988, due to a high book of inquiries on the bailiwick of Bigfoot, The Smithsonian developed a formal Bigfoot answer letter.

Did Bigfoot Really Exist? How Gigantopithecus Became Extinct 

Posted By: Erin Wayman

 Bigfoot. Sasquatch. Yeti. The Abominable Snowman. Whatever yous desire to telephone call upward it, such a giant, mythical ape is non real—at least, non anymore. But to a greater extent than than a 1000000 years ago, an ape every bit large every bit a polar comport lived inwards South Asia, until going extinct 300,000 years ago.

Scientists outset learned ofGigantopithecus in 1935, when Ralph von Koenigswald, a High German paleoanthropologist, walked into a chemist's inwards Hong Kong too flora an unusually large primate tooth for sale. Since then, researchers ask hold collected hundreds ofGigantopithecus teeth too several jaws inwards China, Vietnam too India. Based on these fossils, it appearsGigantopithecus was closely related to modern orangutans andSivapithecus, an ape that lived inwards Asia nearly 12 to 8 1000000 years ago. With alone dentition to acquire on, it’s difficult to slice together what this beast was like. But based on comparisons with gorillas too other modern apes, researchers estimate Gigantopithecus stood to a greater extent than than 10 feet tall too weighed 1,200 pounds (at most, gorillas alone weigh 400 pounds). Given their size, they in all likelihood lived on the ground, walking on their fists similar modern orangutans.

Fortunately, fossil teeth produce ask hold a lot to state nearly an animal’s diet. And the teeth of Gigantopithecus also supply clues to why the ape disappeared.

The features of the dentition—large, apartment molars, thick dental enamel, a deep, massive jaw—indicateGigantopithecus probably ate tough, fibrous plants (opal phytoliths, microscopic silica structures that cast inwards flora cells. Based on the types of phyoliths the researchers flora stuck to the teeth, they concluded Gigantopithecus had a mixed diet of fruits too seeds from the fig family Moraceae and roughly sort of grasses, in all likelihood bamboo. The combination of tough too sugary foods helps explicate why so many of the giant ape’s teeth were riddled with cavities. And numerous pits on Gigantopithecus‘s teeth—a sign of incomplete dental evolution caused past times malnuntrition or nutrient shortages—corroborate the bamboo diet. Ciochon’s squad noted bamboo species today periodically sense majority die-offs, which comport upon the wellness of pandas. The same thing could ask hold happened to Gigantopithecus.

A Gigantopithecus jaw. Image courtesy of Wikicommons

Further bear witness of Gigantopithecus‘ nutrient preferences too habitat was published final November.Zhao LingXia of the Chinese Academy of Sciences too colleagues analyzed carbon isotopes inwards a sample of Gigantopithecus teeth. Plants ask hold different forms of carbon based on their type of photosynthesis; this carbon footprint is too so recorded inwards the teeth of animals that consume plants. The squad determined Gigantopithecus—and the animals living amongst it, such every bit deer, horses too bears—ate alone C3 plants, bear witness the ape lived inwards a forested environment. This move also supports the proposed bamboo diet, as bamboo is a C3 plant.

So what happened to this Pleistocene Yeti? Zhang’s squad suggested the ascent of the Tibetan plateau 1.6 1000000 to 800,000 years agone altered the climate of South Asia, ushering inwards a colder, drier menstruum when forests shrank. Other factors could ask hold exacerbated this crisis. Gigantopithecus‘s neighbor, Homo erectus, may ask hold over-hunted and/or outcompeted their larger ape cousin. And at to the lowest degree i dental study indicates Gigantopithecus developed too matured rattling slowly—a sign they in all likelihood had depression reproductive rates, which tin nurture a species’ risk of going extinct.

Some Bigfoot hunters say Gigantopithecus is hold upward too well, hiding out inwards the forests of the Pacific Northwest. Other Sasquatch enthusiasts, however, dot out this is unlikely, every bit Bigfoot is reported to hold upward a swift, agile, upright walker—not a lumbering, 1,200-pound quadruped.

UPDATE: doc Jeff Meldrum , Anthropology professor at the University of Idaho responded to the Smithsonian yous tin read his answer to the article below:

Glad to run across the Smithsonian maintaining its tradition of objective consideration of the interrogation of Sasquatch/Bigfoot. Gigantopithecus has oftentimes been pointed to every bit a potential antecedent of sasqutch — later on all it is a species that is the correct size inwards the correct house at the correct time. George York’s reconstruction of Gigantopithecus (pictured above) conveys the sense of the enormity of the ape, but it seems unlikely that a terrestrial ape would retain the limb proportions too suspensory specializations of an over-sized orangutan, if it e'er fifty-fifty possessed them to start out with. Fragmentation of the Pleistocene forests mightiness simply every bit good ask hold spawned novel adaptations every bit driven Gigantopithecus to extinction. The extremely lean fossil tape for this large too probable rare ape provides alone a meager glimpse of its past times make too distribution. As for diet, the recent newspaper pointing to a C3 diet too thus a woods habitat is an of import add-on to our understanding. It actually doesn’t lend that much back upward to the “bamboo hypothesis.” Omitted from intelligence is reference to the analysis of dental microwear, which says something nearly the composition of such a C3 diet (Bamboo feeding, dental microwear, too diet of the Pleistocene ape Gigantopithecus blacki. Daegling, DJ | Grine, FE. South African Journal of Science. Vol. 90, no. 10, pp. 527-532. 1994). This pointed to a catholic diet most similar to that of chimpanzees, non the what was predicted for a specialized bamboo feeder. The characterization of a lumbering 1,200 quadruped (or biped for that matter) –”the size of a polar bear” — is misleading. I suspect few would desire to challenge a polar comport to a human foot race.
Comment past times Jeff Meldrum — Jan 9, 2012 @ 4:44 pm

Sumber http://www.bigfootlunchclub.com/2012/12/pemco-insurance-takes-sasquatch-poll.html

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