''Indopithecus giganteus'' () is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of large

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a clade of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and as well as Europe in prehistory), which together with its sister g ...

that lived in the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

of the

Siwalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as the Shivalik Hills and Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas that stretches over about from the Indus River eastwards close to the Brahmaputra River, spanning the northern parts of the India ...

in northern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Although frequently assigned to the more well-known genus ''

Gigantopithecus ''Gigantopithecus'' ( ; ) is an extinct genus of ape from roughly 2 million to 350,000 years ago during the Early Pleistocene, Early to Middle Pleistocene of southern China, represented by one species, ''Gigantopithecus blacki''. Potential identi ...

'', recent authors consider it to be a distinct genus in its own right.

Fossils and description

''Indopithecus'' is known only from teeth and jawbones found in the late Miocene of the Siwalik Hills, India. Based on the slim

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

finds, it was a large, ground-dwelling

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

that ate primarily

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of evergreen perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family. The origin of the word "bamboo" is uncertain, bu ...

and foliage. Despite the specific name, it was approximately half the length of its Chinese relative, ''

Gigantopithecus blacki ''Gigantopithecus'' ( ; ) is an extinct genus of ape from roughly 2 million to 350,000 years ago during the Early to Middle Pleistocene of southern China, represented by one species, ''Gigantopithecus blacki''. Potential identifications have als ...

''. ''Indopithecus giganteus'' was originally named as a species of the European ape ''

Dryopithecus ''Dryopithecus'' is a genus of extinct great apes from the middle–late Miocene boundary of Europe 12.5 to 11.1 million years ago (mya). Since its discovery in 1856, the genus has been subject to taxonomic turmoil, with numerous new species b ...

'', ''D. giganteus'', by

Guy Ellcock Pilgrim (Henry) Guy Ellcock Pilgrim ( Stepney, Barbados, December 24, 1875 – Upton, then in Berkshire, September 15, 1943) was a British geologist and palaeontologist. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and Superintendent of the Geological Surve ...

in 1915, based on a large lower third molar,

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

GSI-D175. However, George Edward Lewis in 1937 decided that Pilgrim's taxon was not congeneric with ''Dryopithecus'' and instead referred the molar to the co-eval ape ''

Sivapithecus ''Sivapithecus'' () (syn: ''Ramapithecus)'' is a genus of extinct apes. Fossil remains of animals now assigned to this genus, dated from 12.2 million years old in the Miocene, have been found since the 19th century in the Siwalik Hills The Si ...

indicus''.

Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald Gustav Heinrich Ralph (often cited as G. H. R.) von Koenigswald (13 November 1902 – 10 July 1982) was a German-Dutch paleontologist and geologist who conducted research on hominins, including ''Homo erectus''. His discoverie ...

in 1950 recognized ''D. giganteus'' as being distinct from ''Dryopithecus'' and ''Sivapithecus'' and erected a new genus for it, ''Indopithecus'' ("ape from India"). Szalay and Delson (1979) found similarities of the ''Indopithecus'' material to ''Gigantopithecus'' and synonymized the two genera, treating ''I. giganteus'' as a referred species, ''G. giganteus''. However, recent authors, including David Cameron (2001, 2003), Pickford (2010), Patnaik (2014), Begun (2015), and Welker et al. (2019), have argued that ''Indopithecus'' should be treated as generically distinct in its own right. ''Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis'' was erected by Elwyn LaVerne Simons and Chopra (1969) for paired lower jaw bones and teeth from deposits in the Siwalk Hills of

dating to approximately 6 to 9 million years ago in the

, specimen Chandigarh-Yale Project No. 359/68, in April 1968 found by G.E. Meyer. The specific name refers to Bilaspur. Szalay and Delson (1979) recognized ''G. bilaspurensis'' as indistinguishable from known remains of ''Gigantopithecus giganteus'', and synonymized the two taxa. Although ''giganteus'' is clearly related to ''G. blacki'', Kelly (2002) and Cameron (2001, 2003) agreed with Szalay and Delson (1979) that ''bilaspurensis'' is a junior synonym of ''giganteus''.Kelley J., 2002. The hominoid radiation in Asia. pp. 369-384. In: Hartwig W.C, editor. ''The primate fossil record.'' Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK: 2002..

oogle Scholar A gutter punk is a homeless or transient individual who displays a variety of specific lifestyle traits and characteristics that often, but not always, are associated with the punk subculture. Attributes may include unkempt dreadlocks, nose ri ...

References

Prehistoric apes Miocene primates of Asia Fossil taxa described in 1915 {{paleo-primate-stub