The mystery extinction of 10-foot-tall ‘King Kong’ apes has been solved by boffins.
The giant beasts are thought to be the largest primate on earth ever.
They weighed 250kg – the same as a fully-grown alligator.
The huge mammals – that are distant relatives to humans – once lived in southern China.
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But they went extinct before humans arrived in the region around two million years ago.
The extinct ape, also known as ‘Gigantopithecus blacki’ disappeared because they were unable to adapt to their environment.
However, the only fossils scientists were able to find were 2000 fossilised teeth and four jawbones.
This left little evidence of their existence and a gap in knowledge.
It was unclear on the timeline of the giant apes’ extinction.
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The fossils were found in several cave sites across southern China.
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New evidence, uncovered by a team of Chinese, Australian and US researchers have now found that the largest primate to walk the earth went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago.
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However, they were unable to adapt their food preferences and behaviours and vulnerable to the changing climates.
This led to their extinction.
Professor Yingqi Zhang, from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences said: “The story of G. blacki is an enigma in palaeontology – how could such a mighty creature go extinct at a time when other primates were adapting and surviving?
”The unresolved cause of its disappearance has become the Holy Grail in this discipline.”
“The IVPP has been excavating for G. blacki evidence in this region for over 10 years but without solid dating and a consistent environmental analysis, the cause of its extinction had eluded us.”
The large-scale project involved collecting evidence from 22 cave sites spread across a wide region of Guangxi Province in southern China.
Six different techniques were applied to the cave sediments and fossils to work out the dates.
This produced 157 radiometric ages.
These were combined with eight sources of environmental and behavioural evidence and applied to 11 caves containing evidence of G. blacki.
They also applied this to another 11 caves of a similar age range where no G. blacki evidence was found.
The main technique used is known as Luminescence dating – which measures a light-sensitive signal found in the burial sediments that encased the giant ape fossils.
This is supported by uranium-series (US) and electron-spin resonance (US-ESR) dating of the G. blacki teeth themselves.
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The findings found that the apes went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago.
But before this time, the 10 ft apes flourished in a rich and diverse forest.
This is earlier than previously assumed.
700,000 to 600,000 years ago, the environment became more variable due to the increase in the strength of the seasons.
This subsequently caused a change in the structure of the forest communities.
However, Orangutans – who are a close relative of the apes – adapted their size, behaviour and habitat preferences as conditions changed.
In comparison, G. blacki relied on a less nutritious backup food source when its preferences were unavailable, decreasing the diversity of its food.
They then became less mobile and faced chronic stress – leading to their extinction.
Professor Zhang added: “G. blacki was the ultimate specialist, compared to the more agile adapters like orangutans, and this ultimately led to its demise.”
Associate Professor Westaway says: “With the threat of a sixth mass extinction event looming over us, there is an urgent need to understand why species go extinct.
“Exploring the reasons for past unresolved extinctions gives us a good starting point to understand primate resilience and the fate of other large animals, in the past and future.”
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