Enamel proteome shows that Gigantopithecus was an early diverging pongine   Nature (2019)   Abstract Gigantopithecus blacki was a giant hominid that inhabited densely forested environments of Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene epoch1. Its evolutionary relationships to other great ape species, and the divergence of these species during the Middle and Late Miocene epoch (16–5.3 million years ago), remain unclear2,3. Hypotheses regarding the relationships between Giganto