Extinct Giant Ape Depended Upon Forest Food

[gigantor]

They sound pretty sure Gigantopithecus went extinct a long time ago...  because of a lack of food. Never mind crossing the frozen land bridge into the Americas, not even a consideration in their mind.

 

Extinct Giant Ape Depended Upon Forest Food
 
FRANKFURT, GERMANY—Scientists from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in Tübingen, and the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, analyzed stable carbon isotopes from the tooth enamel of the little-known giant ape Gigantopithecus. “Unfortunately, there are very few fossil finds of Gigantopithecus—only a few large teeth and bones from the lower mandible are known,” Hervé Bocherens of the University of Tubingen said in a press release.

 

Those fossils are from China and Thailand, which had open savannas and wooden landscapes.

 

The new study of carbon isotopes indicates that Gigantopithecus was a vegetarian that lived only in forests. “Relatives of the giant ape, such as the recent orangutan, have been able to survive despite their specialization on a certain habitat. However, orangutans have a slow metabolism and are able to survive on limited food.

 

Due to its size, Gigantopithecus presumably depended on a large amount of food. When during the Pleistocene era more and more forested areas turned into savanna landscapes, there was simply an insufficient food supply for the giant ape,” Bocherens said.

Edited January 6, 2016 by gigantor

[Bodhi]

Nice article, thanks gigantor.

And there's the lack of any Gigantopithecus fossils found in north america.

I believe it was Grover Krantz who first came up with the Gigantopithecus theory in an attempt to root his own sasquatch theories to methodological science (it should be said though that Heuvelman used Gigantopithecus as his explanation for the yeti and Krantz may likely have cribbed it for sasquatch without attribution). Unfortunately for Krantz and the field in general, he was a sloppy researcher going back to his grad school days at Berkeley. A case in point was his attempt to get sasquatch scientifically named "conditionally" even though no specimen had been found. In his paper he argued that the Gigantopithecus fossil had a horizontal rami and that meant bipedalism. One scientist reviewing the paper noted that there are living apes with very similar jaws which are not bipedal. 

Krantz's book, Climatic Races and Decent Groups, where he put forth his theory used outdated methodologies and was roundly dismissed as a result. In an age of dna research and genetics Krantz was using dental anomalies, fingerprint patterns and cephalic index.

But I digress, I'm reading up on some of the early researchers so this stuff is top of mind right now.

[Guest Crowlogic]

However there will be those who will postulate that giganto evolved further to allow it to cross the land bridge and take up residence in North America.  Perhaps giganto developed a taste for North American pine cones and acorns..........

[Terry]

^

Yeah, I wonder what they ate on THAT journey?  I wonder what they eat in snow country during late fall, winter and early spring when there is no vegetation?  Oh yeah I forgot...they run down deer and break their legs.  We see those tracks in the snow all the time.  

 

t.

[gigantor]

Thanks crowlogic, I was going to ask:

 

if BF exists and it's not gigantopithecus, then what is it?

Edited January 6, 2016 by gigantor

[hiflier]

Hello Crowlogic and All,

 

This propably isn't for this thread but in thinking about the "bridge" itself two things come to mind. It was an ice bridge that was frozen over in which case I doubt Humans or anything would even be an area close enough to cross as an Asian retreat to the south would make more sense. The second would be that the "bridge was actual open land because the oceans were low as a result of northern glaciation but the area along and surrounding the northern Pacific was kept warm because of ocean currents coming from along the Asian continent then going west to east and down the North American continent. That current is what keeps BC and the PacNW temperate. In either case the crossing would appear to be the result of an ice event. I'm going to say the most likely scenario is the second one. It probably also allowed North American camels to migrate to Asia before their demise in the large North American  megefauna/Clovis Culture die-off 11-15,000 years ago.     

[Incorrigible1]

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/first-americans-lived-on-bering-land-bridge-for-thousands-of-years/

 

 

Berangia was a land bridge, and not necessarily frigid, frozen cold.

 

"The Bering Land Bridge, also known as central part of Beringia, is thought to have been up to 600 miles wide. Based on evidence from sediment cores drilled into the now submerged landscape, it seems that here and in some adjacent regions of Alaska and Siberia the landscape at the height of the last glaciation 21,000 years ago was shrub tundra – as found in Arctic Alaska today.

This is dominated by dwarf shrubs such as willow and birch, only a few centimeters tall. There is evidence that there may have been some stands of spruce trees in these regions too in some protected microhabitats, where temperatures were milder than the regions around. The presence of a particular group of beetle species that live in shrub tundra habitats today in Alaska, and are associated with a specific range of temperatures, also supports the idea that the area was a refuge for both flora and fauna.

 

This kind of vegetation would not have supported the large, grazing animals – woolly mammoth, woolly rhino, Pleistocene horses, camels, and bison. These animals lived on the vegetation of the steppe-tundra which dominated the interior of Alaska and the Yukon, as well as interior regions of northeast Siberia. This shrub tundra would have supported elk, perhaps some bighorn sheep, and small mammals. But it had the one resource people needed most to keep warm: wood."

Edited January 6, 2016 by Incorrigible1

[hiflier]

Hello Incorrigible1,

DUDE!

[Guest Crowlogic]

Hello Crowlogic and All,

 

This propably isn't for this thread but in thinking about the "bridge" itself two things come to mind. It was an ice bridge that was frozen over in which case I doubt Humans or anything would even be an area close enough to cross as an Asian retreat to the south would make more sense. The second would be that the "bridge was actual open land because the oceans were low as a result of northern glaciation but the area along and surrounding the northern Pacific was kept warm because of ocean currents coming from along the Asian continent then going west to east and down the North American continent. That current is what keeps BC and the PacNW temperate. In either case the crossing would appear to be the result of an ice event. I'm going to say the most likely scenario is the second one. It probably also allowed North American camels to migrate to Asia before their demise in the large North American  megefauna/Clovis Culture die-off 11-15,000 years ago.     

It was at times steppe.  The ice bridge as a frozen body of water is not entirely  accurate.  There was so much water locked up at the poles the sea bed was exposed.  The overall area was not glaciated and snowfall was light.  

[hiflier]

Hello Crowlogic,

DUDE #2!

[Guest Crowlogic]

Thanks crowlogic, I was going to ask:

 

if BF exists and it's not gigantopithecus, then what is it?

My guess is it'd be a super robust Australopithecus.  BF don't seem to have use of fire or subtle tools.  It's too humansque to be a big orangutan.  How it manages to exist in cold northern climates without technology is a problem.  We humans would be driven out of the cold if we lost our basic technology set of fire, shelter fabrication and clothing.

[hiflier]

Hello Crowlogic,

If it should exist then that would be a pretty fair assessment. Regarding the cold northern climes it would depend on the extent of the cold and the depth of the temperatures. An environment averaging say 9 degrees C colder than what we have now would be a problem for just about any living thing beyond a microbe. If the cold was more seasonal then the problem lessens of course. That situation is one of the many reasons I've been pushing the cave systems. Even though they maybe cold inside as well the overall ambient temperatures deeper in should be at least above freezing.

One idea could be lava vents. Another could be a set up that igloos use which is a floor that's higher than the entrance to keep colder denser air lower in the opening than the inner spaces. Ant smaller spaces inside would be good for a huddled group sleeping in a pile to keep each other warm. Even just snow itself is a great insulator but if there's no food around then it's obvious nothing will warrant staying an any region- fire or no.

Edited January 6, 2016 by hiflier

[BigTreeWalker]

Incorrigible1's article mentions elk and small mammals. Which still seem to be a possible food of preference today. But, that pretty much eliminates a pure vegetarian.

Hiflier, we talked about the lava tubes previously. Yes they would be cold inside. Ape Cave's ambient temp is 42° year round. But I agree, if it was a blizzard outside, that would probably feel warm. Even though they are damp inside, they are still drier than a snow storm. I know because I spent some time in the Ape Cave in the winter years ago. It was definitely a lot drier inside than out in the snow.

[hiflier]

Hello BigTreeWalker,

Even dressed warm 42 degrees over time will seep in without food in the belly to burn and keep the core temperature up. But you're right about it being drier. Wet skin loses heat four times faster than when dry and 70% of ones body heat loss is through an unprotected head. But you know, a hair covered by thick hair and a few ( 50?  ) hibernating bats plucked off the ceiling every couple of hours ought to do the trick right?

[Guest OntarioSquatch]

Looks can be deceiving and I think the Sasquatch's primitive look is giving researchers the wrong impression. IMO, an intelligent hominid doesn't just end up with traits like cold-weather resistance, night vision and super speed through evolution. Evolution has its limits. It can't just create something so perfect.

 

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/misconcep_03