Gigantopithecus

[jahy-gan-toh-pi-thee-kuhs, -pith-i-kuhs, ji-]

noun

1. a genus of extinct ape of southern Asia existing during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, known only from very large fossil jaws and teeth and believed to be perhaps the biggest hominoid that ever lived.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Gigantopithecus¹

1940–45; < New Latin < Greek gigant- (stem of gígās ) giant + -o- -o- + píthēkos ape

Example Sentences

The samples included both modern and archaic humans such as Neanderthals, early human ancestors like Australopithecus africanus, and extinct great apes including Gigantopithecus blacki.

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As the forested home of Gigantopithecus rapidly changed, the ape couldn’t adapt to the expanding grasslands.

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Published today in Nature, a new study combines geological dates, pollen records, and clues preserved inside fossil teeth to present a detailed timeline of when, and how, Gigantopithecus blacki went extinct.

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Westaway worked to come up with more accurate dates for the sediments that Gigantopithecus fossils have been found in.

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If the researchers could work out the timing, then they could better investigate what the world of Gigantopithecus might have been like—and what could have eradicated the ape.

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