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Giganto: A True Biped?


Guest KentuckyApeman

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Guest Kronprinz Adam

A skull, a few jaw bones, teeth, etc. That's it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantopithecus

In fact, the giganto skull does not resemble the modern BF descriptions of the past 50 years. Such as an evolved cranium, more prominent frontal lobe development, etc.

And the whole theory that giganto was a biped. Do we know this as a fact?

Hi everyone!!! I'm reading now a very interesting books, "Beginnings", by Isaac Asimov. According to Asimov's research, Gigantophitecus seems to be noting more than a giant and ancient pongid (considering the few existing remains, of course). I'm now trying to read more about the miocene apes, it seems than in Southeast Asia and China there were several ape species, one of these gave origin to the orangutans.

I found interesting this article in Wikipedia, it makes some references about a "considerably larger Sivaphitecus" [asian miocene ape] but I found no further information:

Wikipedia on Sivaphitecus parvada

"Sivapithecus was about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in body length, similar in size to a modern orangutan. In most respects, it would have resembled a chimpanzee, but its face was closer to that of an orangutan...In 1988 a third, significantly larger species was described and named S. parvada (dated at about 10 million years ago)..."

I think were are really missing something with these Miocene early apes. There were several species in Africa and in Asia (and possibly some in South Europa), so somehow, hominoids split from some of these apes...but if Bigfoot and Yeti creatures do exist, they had also to split from a parallel branch of the ape lineage, but, from which? It remains a mystery!!! :unsure:

I hope we will able to solve this question on the upcoming future!! ^_^

Edited by Kronprinz Adam
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WesT:

The reason for the reddish hair on my Giganto figure was that my scientific partner at the time, Dr. Russell Ciochon, felt that Gignato, being an asian ape, should more likely have reddist hair colors common to asian apes, while the african apes tended to have more grey/black hair colors. So that was the reasoning for specifying we use a reddish hair material for the figure. The lighter tones were simply to create some color variance, which is quite natural, and gave the figure a more lifelike appearance. When one solid color is used over the entire body, the figure often looks less real, so variances of color tone add to the realism.

Bill

Hey Bill, thanks for the reply. Fantastic job on the re-creation, I can honestly say you nailed it. There's another pic of you and your work (that I can't find today for some reason) it's a close up of you and Giganto that shows the tan color (on the arms) that it turned to after a couple of days of laying out in the weather. There's another pic (a bust) that has the reddish-blonde hair color matched to a tee, but I can't find it now either. Anyways, it's a dream come true to be able to communicate with the person who did these re-creation, and your answer is much appeciated. Take it from someone who knows, stick with the reddish-blonde and tan colors. From my perspecive, your partner made a most excellent educated guess.

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WesT:

The color variation is more likely lighting. The photo you posted was taken in the industrial shop where I built it, and had overhead flouresent lights. The outdoor scene of me and him was taken at an off-exhibit area of the San Diego Zoo (and not my backyard, as some people erroniously report on the internet) and it was only outdoors for about an hour, but under direct sunlight, so that would cause differences in the fur tones.

The head shoulder bust was photographed outside on two occasions, two different locations.

Thank you for your appreciation of the work. I consider it one of my career high points as an artist.

Bill

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Bill,

I realize that sunlight played at least in part in what I saw lying dead on the interstate emergency lane. It was a sunny morning when I first saw it and that reddish-blonde hair (from head to toe) glistening in the sun definately caused me to have a mental train wreck while trying to figure out what it was I was looking at. I think it's quite the coincidence you did a mock-up of the closest thing I've seen to it to date, and it's quite the honor to actually converse with the one who created the mock-up. It was long ago (late 70's) and I'm getting old now and will more than likely never find any collaborating sightings or evidence of what I saw. But thanks for the info, you stated that the color was indicitive of Asian primates and that's all I need to know. Keep up the good work!

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