The Largest Monkey in History Likely Went Extinct Due to Climate Change

Scientists say an ancient species of giant monkeys went extinct when climate change made their favorite fruits inaccessible during dry seasons. The species Gigantopithecus, which once lived in southern China, is the largest known monkey in history, standing three meters tall and weighing nearly 300 kilograms. Some scientists suggest that its size may have contributed to its extinction. Renaud Joannes-Boyau, a researcher at Southern Cross University in Australia and one of the authors of this study published in the journal 'Nature', told the Associated Press, 'When food became scarce, this monkey could not climb trees to discover new food sources due to its size.' The giant monkeys, likely resembling today's orangutans, survived for about two million years in the forests of Guangxi, China. They had a herbivorous diet, feeding on fruits and flowers in tropical forests until the environment began to change. Researchers examined pollen and sediment samples from Guangxi caves and fossilized teeth to understand how forests produced fewer fruits due to increased dry seasons starting around 600,000 years ago. They found that the giant monkeys did not disappear quickly but likely went extinct between 215,000 and 295,000 years ago. While smaller monkeys climbed trees to search for diverse foods, the giant monkeys primarily consumed tree bark, reeds, and other non-nutritive food sources. Most of what scientists know about the extinct giant monkeys comes from the study of fossilized teeth and four large lower jaw bones, with no complete skeletons found. Fossil records indicate that several species of large monkeys lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia between 2 to 22 million years ago, but today only gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and humans remain.