How Gigantic Was Gigantopithecus? The Truth About Earth’s Largest Ape

Gigantopithecus was the largest primate to ever live, an extinct genus of giant apes that roamed southern China and Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene epoch (around 2 million to 300,000 years ago). Known from fossilized teeth and jawbones, it stood up to 10 feet tall and weighed up to 1,100 pounds, with a diet of tough vegetation like bamboo, and is considered a distant relative of modern orangutans. Its extinction is linked to climate change, which reduced its forest habitat and food supply,