Extinct Primates Great for home, office or classroom
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Gigantopithecus blacki (partial jaw)
Description:
Gigantopithecus blacki was 10 feet tall and weighed 1,200
pounds. This is speculative, since it is with some
uncertainty that one reconstructs such a massive creature
from a few jaw bones and teeth, however many. The way they
arrived at this picture was first to estimate the size of
the head from the jaw, and then to use a head/body ratio of
1:6.5 in order to determine the body size. For comparison
they cite a head/body ratio of 1:8 for the Australopithecus
afarensis specimen known as 'Lucy'. The more conservative
ratio for Gigantopithecus was arrived at out of
consideration of the massive jaw as an adaptation to the
mastication of fibrous plant matter (probably bamboo).
Gigantopithecus was probably proportionally a markedly big
jawed creature. For the head shape they based their
assumptions on the orangutan, since evolutionarily they
place Gigantopithecus on the same line as the orangutan,
finding a common ancestor for them both in Sivapithecus.
However, the orangutan could not serve as a model for the
body, since it is unlikely that a 1,200 pound ape would be
as arboreal. Therefore they chose the largest primates
known, the gorilla and the extinct giant baboon
Theropithecus oswaldi, as their models for the body.
Location: Africa
Age: Pleistocene, 6 million yrs ago.
Size: Scale 1:1, 100x90x70mm/3.9x3.6x2.8in
Item#: gigantopithecus-hominid-skull-h1301-va
Cost: $95
(+ shipping)
