Giant ape lived alongside humans

<body leftmargin="0" bgcolor="#000060" text="#FFFFFF" link="#FFFF00" vlink="#FF9900"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="95%" height="1"> <tr> <center> <td valign="top" width="33%" height="33"> <b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="5">Researcher: giant ape lived alongside humans</font></p> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"><font face="Arial" size="1">Nov. 11, 2005<br> Courtesy McMaster University<br> and World Science staff<br> </font> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b> <br> A giant ape taller than a moose lived alongside early humans, a researcher has found.<br> <br> The ape was about 10 feet (3 meters) tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds (544 kg), said Jack Rink of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.<br> <br> Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences, found that <i> Gigantopithecus blackii</i>, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years. <br> <br> “A missing piece of the puzzle has always focused on pin-pointing when Gigantopithecus existed,” said Rink.  </b> </font> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <font size="2" face="Arial"> <b> “This is a primate that co-existed with humans at a time when humans were undergoing a major evolutionary change. Guangxi province in southern China, where the Gigantopithecus fossils were found, is the same region where some believe the modern human race originated.” <br> <br> Research into the beast began in 1935, when the Dutch paleontologist G.H. von Koenigswald discovered a yellowish molar among the “dragon bones” for sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy. Traditional Chinese medicine maintains that dragon bones, basically fossil bones and teeth, possess curative powers when the fossils are ground into a fine powder and eaten. <br> <br> For nearly 80 years, the animal has intrigued scientists, who have pieced together a description using nothing more than a handful of teeth and a set of jawbones. <br> <br> “The size of these specimens – the crown of the molar, for instance, measures about an inch across – helped us understand the extraordinary size of the primate,” said Rink, who said he used high-preciion absolute-dating methods to determine their age. <br> <br> Sample studies further revealed Gigantopithecus was an herbivore, feasting mainly on bamboo, he added. Some believe the primate’s voracious appetite for bamboo ultimately placed him at the losing end of the evolutionary scale against his more nimble human competition.  </b> </font> <b><font size="2" face="Arial"> <br> <br> * * *</font> </p> </b> <p><b><font face="Arial" size="2" color="#FFFFFF">Send us a <a href="mailto:editor@world-science.net">comment</a> on this story, or <a href="mailto:?Body=http://www.world-science.net/othernews/051111_greatapefrm.htm">send it to a friend</a></font></b> </p> <p>  </center> </p> </td> </tr> </table> </body>