Gigantopithecus

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Gigantopithecus was a really really big species of Great Ape that are now extinct. They lived in China millions of years ago. The largest could grow 3 meters tall and weigh 300 kilograms. They were the biggest known primate ever to have lived. Late Gigantopithecus lived at the same time and in an overlapping range with Homo erectus, but Gigantopithecus were too big and strong for Homo erectus to hunt, and never met Homo sapiens. Gigantopithecus, at least the adults, had no natural enemies either. They were too big to climb trees and so lived on the ground and ate mostly tubers. They may also have eaten bamboo but was not anywhere near as specialized as pandas. Some have suggested that Gigantopithecus may have migrated into North America during an ice age land bridge period and evolved into sasquatches, but there is no evidence of that. No Gigantopithecus DNA have been sequenced, and their remains are generally considered to be too old for that.
They were originally discovered in the form of teeth only.
Category:Prehistoric apes
Category:Pleistocene extinctions