Gigantopithecus blacki (Primates, Ponginae) from the Lang Trang Cave (Northern Vietnam): The Latest Gigantopithecus in the Late Pleistocene?

A V Lopatin; E N Maschenko; Le Xuan Dac

doi:10.1134/S0012496622010069

Gigantopithecus blacki (Primates, Ponginae) from the Lang Trang Cave (Northern Vietnam): The Latest Gigantopithecus in the Late Pleistocene?

Dokl Biol Sci. 2022 Jun;502(1):6-10. doi: 10.1134/S0012496622010069. Epub 2022 Mar 17.

Authors

A V Lopatin¹, E N Maschenko^{2

3}, Le Xuan Dac⁴

Affiliations

¹ Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia. alopat@paleo.ru.
² Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117647, Moscow, Russia.
³ Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Scientific and Technological Center, Hanoi, Vietnam.
⁴ Institute of Tropical Ecology, Joint Russian-Vietnamese Tropical Scientific and Technological Center, Hanoi, Vietnam.

PMID: 35298746
DOI: 10.1134/S0012496622010069

Abstract

The dental remains of Gigantopithecus blacki von Koenigswald, 1935 (a complete right m2 with roots and distal fragment of left m2 crown) from the Upper Pleistocene deposits of the Lang Trang cave in northern Vietnam (Thanh Hoa Province) are described. It is the first record of Gigantopithecus in the Upper Pleistocene of Vietnam and, apparently, the second one in the Upper Pleistocene in general (considering material from Shuangtan cave in southern China). Probably, the extinction of G. blacki was confined to the Middle-Late Pleistocene transition, and the specimens from the Lang Trang cave belong to one of the latest relict populations of Gigantopithecus.

Keywords: Gigantopithecus blacki; Late Pleistocene; Ponginae; Primates; Vietnam; giant apes.

MeSH terms

Animals
China
Fossils
Hominidae*
Tooth*
Vietnam