Anthropology
A giant ape that went extinct 200,000 years ago resurfaced late last year. It was featured in a documentary about its own life and as a mechanical model, like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park! Russell Ciochon, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa (USA), who filmed the documentary, studied the animal’s fossils for 18 years. The film’s production was funded by the History Channel, which wanted to capitalize on the widespread interest in a new “King Kong” film in Hollywood. The film is called “The Real King Kong.” Ciochon says, “We all benefit from the fame of the (Hollywood fantasy) giant gorilla.” In fact, the real King Kong is no less than the primate hero.
According to researchers, during the Pleistocene period, 2.3 million years ago, Southern China and Northern Vietnam were home to large flying creatures. These creatures had extremely lightweight skeletons, and their thin-walled, hollow bones were filled with a network of air sacs. Pterosaurs had shed the scales of their reptile ancestors and had extremely thin wing membranes. Standing at three meters tall, these creatures had heads the size of three sofas. While their wings were ideal for gliding, a specialized shoulder joint gave them great maneuverability. Martill believes the flying giant had to jump to take off. This is because their pelvic bones resembled a frog’s. Discover, December 2005: Male Gigantopithecus, which roamed forests and lived in caves, exceeded 3 meters in length and weighed nearly half a ton. First revealed in 1935 through a “dragon tooth” sold to a fossil collector in China, Giganto’s anatomy was determined by examining approximately 100 teeth and three lower jaws found in 10 separate caves. The researchers reconstructed the head based on bone measurements from living apes and, assuming a body 6.5 times its head length, created a model of Giganto.
