Thursday, January 7, 2016

Did "Climate Change" Chase Bigfoot from Asia to America?

By way of Watts Up With That, an article from International Business Times which suggests that Bigfoot is the old world Gigantophithicus which migrated across from Asia during the last Ice Ages:

The biggest ape to roam the Earth went extinct 100,000 years ago because the species was not able to adapt to just consuming savannah grass after climate change hit its favoured diet of forest fruit, according to scientists. Weighing five times as much as an adult man and standing up to three metres tall, Gigantopithecus, the closest nature ever came to producing a real King Kong, was still not invincible enough to survive drastic climate changes.

The species lived in semi-tropical forests in southern China and mainland Southeast Asia. Scientists say that the Gigantopithecus was the closest modern cousin of orangutans. Experts around the world did not know why the animal went extinct. In fact, when fossils were discovered in the 1930s, the Gigantopithecus’ teeth were sold as dragon’s teeth in Hong Kong.

Almost nothing was known about the animal’s anatomical shape or habit until German scientists believe that they have made a breakthrough after conducting new studies on the enamel of teeth found in Thailand and China. Hervé Bocherens, professor at the Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) at the University of Tübingen, said that the giant was a strict vegetarian that lived in the forests. As the Earth got struck by a massive ice age during the Pleistocene Epoch 2.6 million to 12,000 years ago, the Gigantopithecus’ diet dwindled.
. . .
However, other apes and early humans in Africa survived the transition by switching their diets to eat the leaves, roots and grass grown in their new environment, Phys.org reports. The Gigantopethicus lacked the physiological ability and ecological flexibility to resist stress and food shortage. Other experts, most notably Grover Krantz, suggested that the Gigantopithecus may have survived and migrated from Asia over the Bering straits.
Climate change, is there nothing it can't explain?

It's a far cry from the Chinese semi-tropical forests to the tundra habitat of Beringia, but other groups of organisms made the adaption. Elephants gave rise to Mammoths and Mastodons, which crossed the land bridge one way or another, so it's not out of the question.

I confess to not believing in Bigfoot, but I'd love to be proved wrong.

Wombat-socho has "Rule 5 Sunday: Teenage Wasteland" ready at The Other McCain.

1 comment:

  1. it does give new meaning to the phrase " Oh, you big
    Ape!"

    ReplyDelete