Editing Gigantopithecus (section)

==Palaeoecology==
[[File:鼎湖山-鼎湖 - panoramio.jpg|thumb|[[Dinghu Mountain]] (above) may be a modern analogue to [[Early Pleistocene]] ''Gigantopithecus'' habitats.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/>]]
''Gigantopithecus'' remains are generally found in what were subtropical [[Evergreen forest|evergreen broadleaf forest]] in South China, except in [[Hainan]] which featured a [[tropical rainforest]]. Carbon and oxygen isotope analysis of Early Pleistocene enamel suggests ''Gigantopithecus'' inhabited dense, humid, closed-canopy forest. [[Queque Cave]] featured a mixed deciduous and evergreen forest dominated by [[birch]], [[oak]], and [[Castanopsis|chinkapin]], as well as several low-lying [[herb]]s and [[fern]]s.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/>

The "''Gigantopithecus'' [[fauna]]", one of the most important mammalian faunal groups of the Early Pleistocene of southern China, includes tropical or subtropical forest species. This group has been subdivided into three stages spanning 2.6–1.8 million years ago, 1.8–1.2 million years ago, and 1.2–0.8 million years ago. The early stage is characterised by more ancient [[Neogene]] animals such as the [[gomphothere|gomphotheriid]] proboscidean (relative of elephants) ''[[Sinomastodon]]'', the [[chalicothere]] ''[[Hesperotherium]]'', the suid ''[[Hippopotamodon]]'', the [[tragulid]] {{ill|Dorcabune|it|it|italic=y}}, and the deer ''[[Cervavitus]]''. The middle stage is indicated by the appearance of the panda ''[[Ailuropoda wulingshanensis]]'', the [[dhole]] ''[[Ussuri dhole|Cuon antiquus]]'', and the [[tapir]] ''[[Tapirus sinensis]]''. The late stage features more typical Middle Pleistocene animals such as the panda ''[[Ailuropoda baconi]]'' and the [[Stegodontidae|stegodontid]] proboscidean ''[[Stegodon]]''.<ref name=Jin2014>{{cite journal|first1=C.|last1=Jin|first2=Y.|last2=Wang|display-authors=et al.|year=2014|title=Chronological sequence of the early Pleistocene ''Gigantopithecus'' faunas from cave sites in the Chongzuo, Zuojiang River area,South China|journal=Quaternary International|volume=354|pages=4–14|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2013.12.051|bibcode=2014QuInt.354....4J}}</ref> Other classic animals typically include orangutans, [[macaque]]s, [[Rhinoceros (genus)|rhino]]s, the extinct pigs ''[[Sus xiaozhu]]'' and ''[[Sus peii]]'', [[muntjac]], ''[[Cervus]]'' (a deer), [[gaur]] (a cow), the [[bovid]] ''[[Megalovis]]'', and more rarely the large [[saber-toothed cat]] ''[[Megantereon]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|first1=M.|last1=Zhu|first2=B. W.|last2=Schubert|first3=J.|last3=Liu|first4=S. C.|last4=Wallace|year=2014|title=A new record of the saber-toothed cat ''Megantereon'' (Felidae, Machairodontinae) from an Early Pleistocene ''Gigantopithecus'' fauna, Yanliang Cave, Fusui, Guangxi, South China|journal=Quaternary International|volume=354|pages=100–109|doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2014.06.052|bibcode=2014QuInt.354..100Z}}</ref> In 2009, American palaeoanthropologist [[Russell Ciochon]] hypothesised an undescribed, chimp-sized ape he identified from a few teeth coexisted with ''Gigantopithecus'',<ref name=Ciochon2009/> which in 2019 was identified as the closely related ''[[Meganthropus]]''.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Zanolli|first1=Clément|last2=Kullmer|first2=Ottmar|last3=Kelley|first3=Jay|last4=Bacon|first4=Anne-Marie|last5=Demeter|first5=Fabrice|last6=Dumoncel|first6=Jean|last7=Fiorenza|first7=Luca|last8=Grine|first8=Frederick E.|last9=Hublin|first9=Jean-Jacques|last10=Nguyen|first10=Anh Tuan|last11=Nguyen|first11=Thi Mai Huong|s2cid=102353734|date=May 2019|title=Evidence for increased hominid diversity in the Early to Middle Pleistocene of Indonesia|url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/72814/1/01-Indonesian_hominid_paleobiodiversity_v2.pdf|journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution|language=en|volume=3|issue=5|pages=755–764|doi=10.1038/s41559-019-0860-z|pmid=30962558|bibcode=2019NatEE...3..755Z |issn=2397-334X|access-date=17 November 2022|url-access=}}</ref> Longgudong Cave may have represented a transitional zone between the [[Palearctic realm|Palaearctic]] and [[Oriental realm|Oriental]] realms, featuring, alongside the typical ''Gigantopithecus'' fauna, more [[taiga|boreal]] animals such as [[Erinaceus|hedgehog]]s, [[Pachycrocuta|hyena]]s, [[Equus (genus)|horse]]s, the bovid ''[[Leptobos]]'', and [[pika]]s.<ref name=Jin2014/>