Editing Gigantopithecus (section)

==Discovery==
===Research history===
[[Image:F. Schrenk mit Gigantopithecus-Molar 2005.jpg|thumb|left|{{Interlanguage link multi|Friedemann Schrenk|de}} holding the [[holotype]] ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' [[Molar (tooth)|molar]]]]
''Gigantopithecus blacki'' was named by anthropologist [[Ralph von Koenigswald]] in 1935 based on two third lower [[molar teeth]], which, he noted, were of enormous size (the first was "''Ein gewaltig grosser (...) Molar''", the second was described as "''der enorme Grösse besitzt''"), measuring {{convert|20|x|22|mm|abbr=in|frac=8}}.<ref name=Koenigswald1935/> The specific name ''blacki'' is in honour of Canadian palaeoanthropologist [[Davidson Black]], who had studied human evolution in China and had died the previous year. Von Koenigswald, working for the [[Dutch East Indies]] Mineralogical Survey on Java, had found the teeth in a drugstore in [[Hong Kong]] where they were being sold as "[[dragon bones]]" to be used in [[traditional Chinese medicine]]. By 1939, after purchasing more teeth, he determined they had originated somewhere in [[Guangdong]] or [[Guangxi]]. He could not formally describe the [[type specimen]] until 1952 due to his [[internment]] by Japanese forces during [[World War II]]. The originally discovered teeth are part of the collection of the [[University of Utrecht]].<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/><ref name=Hartwig2002/>

In 1955, a survey team that was led by Chinese palaeontologist [[Pei Wenzhong]] was tasked by the Chinese [[Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology|Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology]] (IVPP) with finding the original ''Gigantopithecus'' locality. They collected 47 teeth among shipments of "dragon bones" in Guangdong and Guangxi. In 1956, the team discovered the first ''[[in situ]]'' remains, a third molar and [[premolar]], in a cave (subsequently named "''Gigantopithecus'' Cave") in [[Niusui Mountain]], Guangxi. Also in 1956, [[Liucheng County|Liucheng]] farmer Xiuhuai Qin discovered more teeth and the first [[mandible]] on his field. From 1957 to 1963, the IVPP survey team carried out excavations in this area and recovered two more mandibles and more than 1,000 teeth.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/><ref name="Hartwig2002"/><ref name="Coichon1991">{{cite journal |last=Coichon |first=Russell L. |author-link=Russell Ciochon |year=1991 |title=The ape that was – Asian fossils reveal humanity's giant cousin |url=http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/giganto.html |url-status=unfit |journal=Natural History |volume=100 |pages=54–62 |issn=0028-0712 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525202625/http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/giganto.html |archive-date=25 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="Poirier1999">{{cite book| first1=F.E. |last1=Poirier |first2=J.K. |last2=McKee | title=Understanding Human Evolution |edition= fourth | publisher=Prentice Hall |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |year=1999| page=119 |isbn=0-13-096152-3}}</ref> In 2014, a fourth confirmed mandible was discovered in [[Yanliang]], Central China.<ref name=Zhang2014>{{cite journal|first1=Y.|last1=Zhang|first2=C.|last2=Jin|display-authors=et al.|year=2015|title=A fourth mandible and associated dental remains of ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' from the Early Pleistocene Yanliang Cave, Fusui, Guangxi, South China|journal=Historical Biology|volume=28|issue=1–2|pages=95–104|doi=10.1080/08912963.2015.1024115|s2cid=130928802}}</ref> Indicated by extensive [[rodent]] gnawing marks, teeth primarily accumulated in caves likely due to [[Old World porcupine|porcupine]] activity. Porcupines gnaw on bones to obtain nutrients necessary for quill growth, and can haul large bones into their underground dens and consume them entirely, except the hard, enamel-capped crowns of teeth. This may explain why teeth are typically found in great quantity, and why remains other than teeth are so rare.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017>{{cite journal|last1= Zhang|first1= Y.|last2= Harrison|first2= T.|title= ''Gigantopithecus blacki'': a giant ape from the Pleistocene of Asia revisited|journal= American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume= 162|issue= S63|year= 2017|pages= 153–177|doi= 10.1002/ajpa.23150|doi-access= free|pmid= 28105715}}</ref>

Confirmed ''Gigantopithecus'' remains have since been found in 16 different sites across southern China. The northernmost sites are {{ill|Longgupo|de|Longgupo-Höhle}} and [[Longgu Cave]], just south of the [[Yangtze River]], and southernmost on Hainan Island in the [[South China Sea]]. An isolated canine from [[Thẩm Khuyên Cave]], Vietnam, and a fourth premolar from [[Pha Bong]], Thailand, could possibly be assigned to ''Gigantopithecus'', though these could also represent the extinct orangutan ''[[Pongo weidenreichi]]''.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/> Two mandibular fragments each preserving the last two molars from {{ill|Semono|nl}} in [[Central Java]], Indonesia, described in 2016 could represent ''Gigantopithecus''.<ref name=Sofwan2016>{{cite journal |last=Sofwan |first=N. |year=2016 |title=Primata Besar di Jawa: Spesimen Baru ''Gigantopithecus'' dari Semedo|trans-title=Giant Primate of Java: A new ''Gigantopithecus'' specimen from Semedo|journal=Berkala Arkeologi |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=141–160 |doi=10.30883/jba.v36i2.241 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323630558 |display-authors=et al. |doi-access=free }}</ref> The oldest remains date to 2.2 million years ago from [[Baikong Cave]], and the youngest to 295 to 215 thousand years ago from [[Shuangtan Cave|Shuangtan]] and [[Gongjishan Cave]]s.<ref name="NAT-20240110"/>

===Classification===
====''G. blacki''====
[[File:Orangutan -Zoologischer Garten Berlin-8a.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''Gigantopithecus'' is closely allied with [[orangutan]]s (a male [[Bornean orangutan]] above).]]
In 1935, von Koenigswald considered ''Gigantopithecus'' to be closely allied with the [[Late Miocene]] ''[[Sivapithecus]]'' from India.<ref name=Koenigswald1935/> In 1939, South African palaeontologist [[Robert Broom]] hypothesised that it was closely allied with ''[[Australopithecus]]'' and the [[last common ancestor]] of humans and other apes.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Broom|first=R.|author-link=Robert Broom|year=1939|title=The dentition of the Transvaal Pleistocene anthropoids, ''Plesianthropus'' and ''Paranthropus''|journal=Annals of the Transvaal Museum|volume=19|issue=3|pages=303–314|url=https://journals.co.za/docserver/fulltext/nfi_annalstm/19/3/484.pdf?expires=1587575563&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=2AB75E7DD6F91D015A8D2145BD8137F9}}</ref> In 1946, Jewish German anthropologist [[Franz Weidenreich]] described ''Gigantopithecus'' as a human ancestor as "''Gigantanthropus''", believing that the human lineage went through a gigantic phase. He stated that the teeth are more similar to those of modern humans and ''[[Homo erectus]]'' (at the time "''Pithecanthropus''" for [[Java Man|early Javan specimens]]), and envisioned a lineage from ''Gigantopithecus'', to the Javan ape ''[[Meganthropus]]'' (then considered a human ancestor), to "''Pithecanthropus''", to "''[[Solo Man|Javanthropus]]''", and finally [[Aboriginal Australian]]s. This was part of his [[multiregional origin of modern humans|multiregional hypothesis]], that all modern races and ethnicities evolved independently from a local archaic human species, rather than sharing a more recent and fully modern common ancestor.<ref name=Weidenreich1946>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.531106|first=F.|last=Weidenreich|author-link=Franz Weidenreich|year=1946|title=Apes, Giants, and Man|publisher=University of Chicago Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.531106/page/n68 58]–66}}</ref> In 1952, von Koenigswald agreed that ''Gigantopithecus'' was a [[hominin]], but believed it was an offshoot rather than a human ancestor.<ref>{{cite journal|last=von Koenigswald|first=G. H. R.|author-link=Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald|year=1952|title=''Gigantopithecus blacki'' von Koenigswald, a giant fossil hominoid from the Pleistocene of southern China|journal=Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History|volume=43|pages=292–325|hdl=2246/298}}</ref> Much debate followed whether ''Gigantopithecus'' was a hominin or not for the next three decades until the [[Out of Africa theory|Out of Africa]] hypothesis overturned the {{ill|Out of Asia|nl|Out of Asia-theorie}} and multiregional hypotheses, firmly placing humanity's origins in Africa.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/><ref name=Hartwig2002/>

''Gigantopithecus'' is now classified in the [[subfamily]] [[Ponginae]], closely allied with ''Sivapithecus'' and ''Indopithecus''. This would make its closest living relatives the [[orangutan]]s. However, there are few similar traits ([[synapomorphies]]) linking ''Gigantopithecus'' and orangutans due to fragmentary remains, with the main morphological argument being its close affinities to ''Sivapithecus'', which is better established as a pongine based on skull features. In 2017, Chinese palaeoanthropologist Yingqi Zhang and American anthropologist Terry Harrison suggested that ''Gigantopithecus'' is most closely allied to the Chinese ''[[Lufengpithecus]]'', which went extinct 4 million years prior to ''Gigantopithecus''.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/>

In 2019, [[peptide sequencing]] of [[dentine]] and [[Tooth enamel|enamel]] proteins of a ''Gigantopithecus'' molar from [[Chuifeng Cave]] indicates that ''Gigantopithecus'' was indeed closely allied with orangutans, and, assuming the current [[mutation rate]] in orangutans has remained constant, shared a common ancestor about 12–10 million years ago in the [[Middle Miocene|Middle]] to Late Miocene. Their last common ancestor would have been a part of the Miocene [[Adaptive radiation|radiation]] of apes. The same study calculated a divergence time between the Ponginae and African [[great ape]]s about 26–17.7 million years ago.<ref name= "Welker2019">{{cite journal|last1= Welker|first1= F.|last2= Ramos-Madrigal|first2= J.|last3= Kuhlwilm|first3= M.|last4= Liao|first4= W.|last5= Gutenbrunner|first5= P.|last6=de Manuel|first6= M.|last7= Samodova|first7= D.|last8= Mackie|first8= M.|last9= Allentoft|first9=M. E.|last10= Bacon|first10= A.-M.|last11= Collins|first11=M. J.|last12= Cox|first12= J.|last13= Lalueza-Fox|first13 =C.|last14= Olsen|first14=J. V.|last15= Demeter|first15= F.|last16= Wang|first16= W.|last17= Marques-Bonet|first17= T.|last18= Cappellini|first18= E.|display-authors= 3|title= Enamel proteome shows that ''Gigantopithecus'' was an early diverging pongine|journal= Nature|year= 2019|doi= 10.1038/s41586-019-1728-8|pmc= 6908745|pmid= 31723270|volume= 576|issue= 7786|pages= 262–265|bibcode= 2019Natur.576..262W}}</ref>

[[Cladogram]] according to Zhang and Harrison, 2017:<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/>
{{clade
|label1=[[Hominoidea]] (apes)
|1={{clade
 |1=''[[Hylobates]]'' (gibbons) [[File:Le gibbon (white background).jpg|40 px]]
 |2={{clade
  |1=''[[Oreopithecus]]''
  |label2=[[Hominidae]]
  |2={{clade
   |label2=[[Ponginae]]
   |1={{clade
    |1={{clade
     |1=''[[Ouranopithecus]]''
     |2=''[[Dryopithecus]]''[[File:DryopithecusDB15.jpg|50 px]]
     }}
    |label2=[[Homininae]]
    |2={{clade
     |1=''[[Gorilla]]'' (gorillas) [[File:Gorila de llanura occidental. Gorilla gorilla - Blanca Martí de Ahumada (white background).jpg|50 px]]
     |label2=[[Hominini]]
     |2={{clade
      |1=''[[Pan (genus)|Pan]]'' (chimpanzees) [[File:PanTroglodytesSmit (white background).jpg|50 px]]
      |2=''[[Australopithecus]]'' and ''[[Homo]]'' (humans) [[File:Bechuana of Distinction-1841 (white background).jpg|60 px]]
      }}
     }}
    }}
   |2={{clade
    |1='''''Gigantopithecus''''' [[File:Gigantopithecus.png|80 px]]
    |2={{clade
     |1=''[[Lufengpithecus]]''
     |2={{clade
      |1=''[[Ankarapithecus]]''
      |2={{clade
       |1=''[[Sivapithecus]]''
       |2=''[[Pongo (genus)|Pongo]]'' (orangutans) [[File:Simia satyrus - 1837 - Print - Iconographia Zoologica - Special Collections University of Amsterdam - White Background.jpg|50 px]]
      }}
     }}
    }}
   }}
  }}
}}}}}}
{{clear}}

===="''G. bilaspurensis''"====
In 1969, an 8.6 million year old mandible from the [[Sivalik Hills]] in northern India was classified as "''G. bilaspurensis''" by palaeontologists [[Elwyn L. Simons]] and {{ill|Shiv Raj Kumar Chopra|de}}, who believed it was the ancestor of ''G. blacki''.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/><ref name=Hartwig2002>{{cite book|first=W. C.|last=Hartwig|year=2002|title=The Primate Fossil Record|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=371–372|isbn=0-521-66315-6|url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=Ezm1OA_s6isC|page=371}}}}</ref> This bore resemblance to a molar discovered in 1915 in the Pakistani [[Pothohar Plateau]] then classified as "''[[Dryopithecus]] giganteus''". Von Koenigswald reclassified "''D. giganteus''" in 1950 into its own genus, ''[[Indopithecus]]'', but this was changed again in 1979 to "''G. giganteus''" by American anthropologists Frederick Szalay and Eric Delson<ref>{{cite book|first1=F.|last1=Szalay|first2=E.|last2=Delson|year=1979|title=Evolutionary History of the Primates|publisher=Academic Press|pages=493–494|isbn=1-4832-8925-7|url={{google books|plainurl=yes|id=jE7gBAAAQBAJ|page=493}}}}</ref> until ''Indopithecus'' was resurrected in 2003 by Australian anthropologist {{ill|David W. Cameron|qid=Q27947828|s=1|v=sup}}.<ref name="ZhangHarrison2017"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Cameron|first=D. W.|year=2003|title=A functional and phylogenetic interpretation of the late Miocene Siwalik hominid ''Indopithecus'' and the Chinese Pleistocene hominid ''Gigantopithecus''|journal=Himalayan Geology|volume=24|issue=2|pages=19–28|url=https://www.himgeology.com/volume_details.php?volume=35|access-date=12 February 2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref> "''G. bilaspurensis''" is now considered a [[Taxonomic synonym|synonym]] of ''Indopithecus giganteus'', leaving ''Gigantopithecus'' [[monotypic]] (with only one species), ''G. blacki''.<ref name="ZhangHarrison2017"/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Cameron|first=D. W.|year=2001|title=The taxonomic status of the Siwalik late Miocene hominid ''Indopithecus'' (= ''Gigantopithecus'')|journal=Himalayan Geology|volume=22|issue=2|pages=29–34|url=https://www.himgeology.com/volume_details.php?volume=38|access-date=12 February 2025|url-access=subscription}}</ref>