Chinese Cave Yields 13 Gigantopithecus Teeth, Filling 1.2-0.7 Million-Year Fossil Gap
Updated
Updated · Sci.News · Jun 15
Chinese Cave Yields 13 Gigantopithecus Teeth, Filling 1.2-0.7 Million-Year Fossil Gap
2 articles · Updated · Sci.News · Jun 15
Summary
Thirteen Gigantopithecus blacki teeth found at Yanli Cave 1 in Guangxi give researchers rare fossils from the 1.2 million to 0.7 million-year Early-Middle Pleistocene transition.
Thirty associated animal species — including two panda forms tied to adjacent epochs — let scientists date the cave fill to that climate-shift interval, when conditions turned cooler, drier and more glacially driven.
The teeth include canines, premolars and molars from both jaws, and their sizes span traits seen in earlier and later populations, pointing to an evolutionary shift likely linked to diet.
Gigantopithecus blacki, an extinct ape that stood up to 3 meters tall and weighed as much as 540 kg, survived from about 2.3 million years ago until roughly 295,000 to 215,000 years ago.
Researchers said Yanli Cave 1 is the third potential transition-period Gigantopithecus site in Chongzuo, adding evidence for how the species adapted before its eventual extinction.