Humans belong to an exclusive clade known as the great apes, comprising only four living species: humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas. While gorillas—especially the eastern lowland subspecies—are the largest extant primates, they are dwarfed by Gigantopithecus blacki, the extinct giant ape that once reigned as the world’s biggest primate.

In 1935, two years after the release of the original King Kong, Gustav von Koenigswald, an anthropologist, entered a Hong Kong apothecary and discovered a cache of enormous teeth sold as “dragon teeth” for traditional medicine. These were unmistakably the molars of a gigantic primate, not a mythical lizard.

Over the next few years von Koenigswald uncovered additional sets of massive teeth in apothecaries across Hong Kong and mainland China. When fragments of jawbone were later recovered, they revealed an extinct ape most similar to modern orangutans, which led to the designation Gigantopithecus, meaning “giant ape.” The species has become one of the most iconic extinct primates, yet much of its biology remains elusive.

How Gigantopithecus Compared to Other Apes

To date, more than 2,000 Gigantopithecus teeth have been unearthed, primarily in southern China, with additional finds in Vietnam and India. Although several jaw fragments have been discovered, no complete skull—or post‑cranial skeleton—has ever been recovered, leaving much of its anatomy speculative.

Based on dental morphology, scientists estimate Gigantopithecus stood approximately 10 feet tall and weighed between 440 and 660 pounds, making it the largest primate known to science. For context, the tallest living primate is the eastern lowland gorilla, whose biggest individuals reach about 5.5 feet and weigh up to 485 pounds.

Gigantopithecus thrived during the Pleistocene epoch, a period characterized by dramatic climatic oscillations and the presence of other megafauna such as the woolly mammoth and giant kangaroo. The species likely emerged around 2 million years ago and vanished between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago. Until recently, the cause of its extinction remained speculative.

Gigantopithecus Couldn’t Adapt to a Changing Climate

Scientists long suspected that Gigantopithecus died out due to the same climate shifts that eliminated many Pleistocene megafauna. The Pleistocene was marked by rapid, extreme environmental changes, including the last glacial maximum. It seemed plausible that Gigantopithecus, like other large mammals, couldn’t cope with these shifts—yet one puzzle persisted.

Gigantopithecus coexisted with an ancient orangutan species, Pongo weidenreichi. While P. weidenreichi survived into the Holocene—evidenced by fossils dated to the present epoch—Gigantopithecus did not. Both genera diverged 10–12 million years ago, raising the question of why one survived and the other did not.

A 2024 study published in Nature analyzed the dentition of both Gigantopithecus and P. weidenreichi. The researchers found that as forests gave way to grasslands, P. weidenreichi shifted its diet accordingly, while Gigantopithecus remained a strict frugivore and folivore reliant on tree foliage. This ecological specialization left the enormous ape unable to secure sufficient food as trees became scarce, ultimately leading to its extinction.