It Turns Out This Is the Reason the Largest Primate in the World Finally Went Extinct

Ternyata Ini Penyebab Primata Terbesar di Dunia Ini Akhirnya Punah

"Apparently This Is the Cause of the World's Largest Primates Finally Becoming Extinct"

It turns out that this is the cause of the world's largest primate finally becoming extinct.

With a height of three meters and weighing 250 kg, Gigantopithecus blacki is the largest primate that ever lived when roaming in the forest that is now part of southern China at least 2.3 million years ago. Fossils indicate that G. blacki once had a large and stable population.

However, about 300,000 years ago, this species became extinct, and scientists have been wondering why for almost a century. Now, a study reported in the journal Nature today, which analyzes ancient climates and the feeding habits of the giant primates, suggests that G. blacki was actually too large and too selective in its diet to adapt to changes in forest conditions.

"Overall, it seems very convincing to me," said Enrico Cappellini, a paleogenetics expert at the University of Copenhagen who is not part of the collaboration."
"This is certainly a significant result," added Julien Louys, a paleontology expert at Griffith University who was also not involved in this research."

"The writers have provided detailed and convincing evidence."

The interest of scientists in G. blacki began in 1935, when anthropologist Gustav von Koenigswald saw what was sold as "dragon teeth" in a traditional medicine store in Hong Kong.

It Turns Out This Is the Reason the Largest Primate in the World Finally Went Extinct

Since then, the search in the southern caves of China has discovered about 2000 fossil teeth and 4 lower jaws identified as belonging to G. blacki, however, no other bones have been found.

"Seen from the size of the teeth"

Scientists estimate the height and weight of this massive forest creature by comparing the unusually large molars with those of other primates. These teeth also provide clues about its identity.

Initially thought to be a Gorilla

Initially, researchers thought G. blacki resembled gorillas. However, in a Nature paper in 2019, Capellini and colleagues from Copenhagen, Frido Welker, reported that protein fragments from a tooth revealed that genetically, G. blacki has a close relationship with orangutans.

This finding makes the extinction of G. blacki even more confusing, as this species shares its habitat with the orangutan species, Pongo weidenreichi, whose relatives still survive in Southeast Asia.

"Why did the giant creature become extinct while its smaller relatives survived?"

"In 2015, Yingqi Zhang, a paleontologist at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, collaborated with a geochronology expert from Macquarie University, Kira Westaway, in an attempt to solve this puzzle. "When you consider extinction, timing, and timing that is very precise, it is really key," said Westaway."

This couple recruited other specialists to use six independent dating techniques, including optically stimulated luminescence, which is used to determine how long quartz and feldspar grains are buried in sediment, and electron spin resonance, to determine the age of tooth enamel. The samples were taken from 22 caves that have produced G. blacki fossils or other related fossils.

The translation of the given 'Bahasa' text to 'English' while preserving any HTML tags is: "The result shows"

The translation of the given 'Bahasa' text to 'English' while preserving the HTML tags is as follows: "The dating indicates that the population of G. blacki, which once thrived, has experienced a decline in numbers and its range has shrunk from four provinces in southern China to only a small area in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region today. This giant forest became extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago."

With information about the extinction window in hand, the paleoecologists in the team then tried to understand what environmental changes might have driven the extinction. By analyzing pollen in ancient cave sediments, they found that the environment underwent significant changes around 700,000 to 600,000 years ago, as drier conditions transformed closed canopy forests into shrubs and grasslands. The favored fruits of G. blacki became scarce and water became less available.

"Changes in tooth shape"

Observations of wear and tear on the teeth of G. blacki and P. weidenreichi fossils reveal signs of challenging times for larger primates. When fruits become scarce, changes in teeth and tooth tissue composition indicate that G. blacki switched to less nutritious bark and twigs, causing chronic stress in the population.

Over time, P. weidenreichi expands its diet to include shoots and leaves of trees, insects, and small animals. However, G. blacki is unable to make such changes. Its large body hinders its ability to climb and chase small prey, ultimately determining its fate, said Westaway.

The team has successfully "squeezed almost all the ecological and biological information currently obtainable from ancient teeth," said Louys.
"He wants to see a comprehensive approach applied by the writer to the study of other megafauna extinctions."

Source: Science.org

Westaway and Zhang continue to focus on G. blacki.
"With only jawbones and remaining teeth, what does the appearance of this large ape look like, "still remains a puzzle that we need to solve," said Zhang. So, the hunt continues."

"We have become better at finding caves containing G. blacki," he said. "We have not found its bones yet, but I think we are getting closer."

news update

This Ancient Animal Used Strange Spike Antlers to Catch Prey

The ancient animal named Anomalocaris canadensis, which has long been extinct and is referred to as the "abnormal shrimp from Canada."