Teeth show why giant apes died

Two million years ago in Southeast Asia, apes called Gigantopithecus blacki roamed the Earth. Researchers call the species “Giganto”, and believe it was three metres tall and weighed up to 300 kilograms – making it the world’s largest known primate (a group of animals including apes, monkeys and humans). For a long time scientists have wondered why they went extinct, but new research has revealed that Gigantos just couldn’t adapt to a changing world. The first step was to work out when Gigantos died out. Researchers looked at fossils, such as teeth and pieces of jawbone, found in caves in southern China. Tests showed that the species died out some time between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago. To find out more about where Gigantos lived, the team studied other samples…

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The Week Junior (UK) (Digital) - 1 Issue, 425

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