Now, we've been finding remains of gigantopithicus since the 30s, but this is the first proof we've found that it and homo sapiens were contemporaries. Anybody know anything about the "high-precision absolute-dating method" referred to in the article? This is the first I've heard of it, that I can recall.
Something I find interesting is the mention in the article of gigantopithicus's diet consisting almost exclusively of bamboo. Becoming that specialized is such a dangerous thing for a species to do. What other animals have specialized to such a degree that there is only one foodsource that they can eat? Pandas leap to mind as another bamboo eater, and koalas as eucalyptus eaters. All baleen whales feed exclusively on krill...any other such species of animal anyone can think of? I expect that some of the things living near hydrothermal vents have taken this tack, and I recall reading about a species of worm that feeds exclusively on whale carcasses that have fallen to the ocean floor, but those are more extreme environments that I guess I'm asking about. What I want to know is what other animals, when their environment contains multiple possible food sources, have specialized to such a degree that they can only feed on one of them.
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I was going to suggest the phainopepla, which I thought ate only mistletoe berries, but further research shows that they supplement with insects when they have to.
quote: For nearly 80 years, Gigantopithecus blackii has intrigued scientists, who have pieced together a description using nothing more than a handful of teeth and a set of jawbones.
Interesting that they feel they can put together such a complete picture of this from only that little bit of stuff....
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Don't you guys know anything? This is a Bigfoot. Gigantopithecus blackii is Bigfoot. Science Fiction writers and Cryptozoologists have known this for years.
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quote:Interesting that they feel they can put together such a complete picture of this from only that little bit of stuff....
You'd be amazed what a good zoologist can do with just a *single* tooth. These are people who spend their lives analyzing the minute differences between species. Given a tooth of a certain size, knowledge of existing primate forms, and an understanding of biomechanics, an extrapolation of the ape's size and general shape is quite reasonable (albeit theoretical).
That aside, I suspect the detailed hand drawing in the article is meant as nothing more than an artist's impression. You can determine an animal's size pretty accurately with a few bones alone, and guess at the bone structure and anatomy by comparison with similar species, but its fur patterns and expression? Not so much.
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quote: Something I find interesting is the mention in the article of gigantopithicus's diet consisting almost exclusively of bamboo. Becoming that specialized is such a dangerous thing for a species to do. What other animals have specialized to such a degree that there is only one foodsource that they can eat? Pandas leap to mind as another bamboo eater, and koalas as eucalyptus eaters. All baleen whales feed exclusively on krill...any other such species of animal anyone can think of?
I would say that in this humans, and other omnivores are unusual in their range of diet. For instance there is a large variety of animals that subsist entirely on grass, another large variety depend upon one or two prey species for their entire diet. Beavers eat only inner bark of trees, granted more than one type of tree, but still a pretty limited food source when you consider how long it takes a tree to grow. Most animals, even in an environment with rich variety, will survive on one specialized food resource. This actually enhances an organisms survivability, because the organism can specialize so that it is better adapted to that food source than any other organism.
If we look at bamboo for instance, it is very difficult to digest, and the digestion requires a specialized stomach. The ratio of energy required to digest bamboo, compared to the energy gained is very low. So pandas, for instance, have a very low metabolism. They spend most of their time just trying to eat enough to maintain their weight. On the other hand, bamboo is like grass, it just grows everywhere, so it's relatively easy to forage. So it makes sense to have one organism in an ecosystem that can utilize bamboo, where no one else can. But if an organism has a stomach specialized to digest bamboo, it won't be able to digest anything else. So you specialize to reduce competetition for resources, at the price of restricting diet.
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