Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
School of Natural Sciences, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Nature. 2024 Jan;625(7995):535-539. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06900-0. Epub 2024 Jan 10.
The largest ever primate and one of the largest of the southeast Asian megafauna, Gigantopithecus blacki, persisted in China from about 2.0 million years until the late middle Pleistocene when it became extinct. Its demise is enigmatic considering that it was one of the few Asian great apes to go extinct in the last 2.6 million years, whereas others, including orangutan, survived until the present. The cause of the disappearance of G. blacki remains unresolved but could shed light on primate resilience and the fate of megafauna in this region. Here we applied three multidisciplinary analyses-timing, past environments and behaviour-to 22 caves in southern China. We used 157 radiometric ages from six dating techniques to establish a timeline for the demise of G. blacki. We show that from 2.3 million years ago the environment was a mosaic of forests and grasses, providing ideal conditions for thriving G. blacki populations. However, just before and during the extinction window between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago there was enhanced environmental variability from increased seasonality, which caused changes in plant communities and an increase in open forest environments. Although its close relative Pongo weidenreichi managed to adapt its dietary preferences and behaviour to this variability, G. blacki showed signs of chronic stress and dwindling populations. Ultimately its struggle to adapt led to the extinction of the greatest primate to ever inhabit the Earth.
最大的灵长类动物之一和东南亚最大的巨型动物之一，巨猿黑猩猩（Gigantopithecus blacki）在中国从大约 200 万年前一直持续到更新世中期，直到灭绝。考虑到它是过去 260 万年来亚洲少数几种灭绝的大型猿类之一，而其他物种，包括猩猩，一直存活到现在，它的灭绝是神秘的。巨猿黑猩猩灭绝的原因仍未解决，但它可能揭示了灵长类动物的适应能力和该地区巨型动物的命运。在这里，我们应用了三种多学科分析——时间、过去的环境和行为——对中国南方的 22 个洞穴进行了分析。我们使用了来自六种测年技术的 157 个放射性测年年龄，为巨猿黑猩猩的灭绝建立了一个时间轴。我们表明，从 230 万年前开始，环境是森林和草原的马赛克，为繁荣的巨猿黑猩猩种群提供了理想的条件。然而，就在灭绝窗口（29.5 万至 21.5 万年前）之前和期间，季节性的增加导致环境变异性增强，这导致了植物群落的变化和开阔森林环境的增加。尽管它的近亲猩猩成功地调整了其饮食偏好和行为以适应这种变异性，但巨猿黑猩猩表现出慢性压力和种群减少的迹象。最终，它适应的挣扎导致了地球上曾经栖息过的最大灵长类动物的灭绝。
