https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06900-0.pdf
10 January 2024

Abstract
The largest ever primate and one of the largest of
the southeast Asian megafauna, Gigantopithecus
blacki1, persisted in China from about 2.0 million
years until the late middle Pleistocene when it
became extinct2,3,4. 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 present5. The cause of the disappearance
of G. blacki remains unresolved but could shed
light on primate resilience and the fate of
megafauna in this region6. 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.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Marc Verhaegen wrote:

Op dinsdag 23 januari 2024 om 21:41:48 UTC+1 schreef JTEM is so reasonable:

It's not science. It's propaganda.
The "Cite" is literally saying nothing. "Gee, they're dead and
we don't know why."
Read your own cite. It went extinct between 200 and 300
thousand years ago, but the current ice age with this
glacial/interglacial cycle began significantly earlier. So
if Kwimate Cha-Ching ("Hand me another research grant!")
killed them off, why not hundreds of 1000s of years earlier?
The 2.6 million year span they mention? That is the
conventional start of this Quaternary Period: 2.6 Ma.
But it's literally not telling you anything: "We don't know
why it went extinct, KWIMATE CHA-CHING!"
Here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.93.7.3016
One had tools and smarts. The other went extinct.

Yes, they say it themselves: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06900-0.pdf
"The cause of the disappearance of G.blacki remains unresolved".

How nice that they presented detailed analysis of
conditions during which G. lived.

". 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."


"By about 300 ka there is evidence of a struggling
G. blacki population as the number of G. blacki
caves and teeth reduced (Fig. 3c), indicating a
dwindling population. The stark change in the
teeth banding of G. blacki indicates chronic stress
in the population (Fig. 2d(iv)–(v)) and changes
from its preferred dietary behaviour (Fig. 2c and
Extended Data Fig. 10f,g) indicate that G. blacki
was struggling to respond to the environmental
changes on a potentially shrinking territory20.
It would seem that its forest refugia changed its
structure and became too open and disturbed for
this species to sustain itself."

A nicely laid out case.

Can you or your film school acolyte tell us precisely
why and how other species died out? Say, Brontops?
Cynognathus? No?

Perhaps you are jealous at the depth and extent
of their analysis. All you have is snorkel noses...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

JTEM is so reasonable wrote:

Marc Verhaegen wrote:

We're losing our time with these empty netloons, JTEM

Sometimes I have this dream where the idiots defending
the status quo aren't serious. They realize that the good
Doctor has valid points. Maybe they just disagree with you
on the details and NOT on the overall point of Aquatic Ape.
But they can't admit it, not without jeopardizing publication,
grants and of course academic status.

Let's face it: Aquatic Ape is right. We're just arguing over
the nitty gritty... the details.

Let's face it - aa attracts people like you who believe in
space aliens and Nostra-dumbass and creationism

Go back to film school.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Marc Verhaegen wrote:

Op zaterdag 27 januari 2024 om 05:58:16 UTC+1 schreef JTEM is so reasonable:

some netloon:

How nice that they presented detailed analysis of
conditions during which G. lived.> But they didn't. Are you honestly THAT dense? Here.

It's above your reading level but give it a try:
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/1%20Glacial-Interglacial%20Cycles-Final-OCT%202021.pdf
And you think that the climate was stable until
roughly 300k years ago? Because... why?
You have literally set aside absolutely everything you
know about the climate, the Quaternary Period,
the evolution of the genus Homo just so that you can
lap your greedy tongue at the ass crack of the media.
Wow. Dd you get tenure? Is that it? Because it sure
looks like you did!
And here you go, again:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.93.7.3016
There. Absolutely ZERO explanation missing.

We're losing our time with these empty netloons, JTEM

Anthropology without waterside adaptations = geology without plate tectonics.

Like this

<https://theaquaticape.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/human_aquatic_adaptations.jpg>

:=}

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

JTEM is so reasonable wrote:

Primum Sapienti wrote:

How nice that they presented detailed analysis of
conditions during which G. lived.

But they didn't. Are you honestly THAT dense? Here.

Yes, they did.

It's above your reading level but give it a try:

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/2021-11/1%20Glacial-Interglacial%20Cycles-Final-OCT%202021.pdf

And you think that the climate was stable until
roughly 300k years ago? Because... why?

I said no such thing. I only posted a link to the paper.

You have literally set aside absolutely everything you
know about the climate, the Quaternary Period,
the evolution of the genus Homo just so that you can
lap your greedy tongue at the ass crack of the media.

Wow. Dd you get tenure? Is that it? Because it sure
looks like you did!

And here you go, again:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.93.7.3016

There. Absolutely ZERO explanation missing.

You finished last in film school, didn't you?

Did you bother to read your own link?

"...Homo and Gigantopithecus co-occur at Tham Khuyen
about a half million years ago."

Now, from the other paper's abstract:

"... just before and during the extinction window
between 295,000 and 215,000  years ago there was
enhanced environmental variability..."

You do understand that half a million years ago is
OLDER than 295kya to 215kya?

Johnny Johnny Johnny - what ARE we going to do with you?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

erik simpson wrote:

On 2/5/24 11:18 AM, Marc Verhaegen wrote:

Ape+human evolution & speech origins,
modern insights:
google
- David Attenborough Marc Verhaegen
- Gondwanatalks Verhaegen
- aquarboreal
- seafood, diving, song & speech
- Mario Vaneechoutte cs 2024 Nature Anthropology 2,10007 “Have we been
barking up the wrong ancestral tree? Australopithecines are probably not
our ancestors” open access  https://www.sciepublish.com/article/pii/94

 That's a Chinese "predatory journal", and the article is crap. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Research_Publishing

Nice catch.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

JTEM is so reasonable wrote:

Primum Sapienti wrote:

Let's face it

You worship Out of Africa purity & savanna retardation. I don't

You worship mv. Get help.

think there's much, if anything, you could face.

Aquatic Ape is necessary. Even Out of Africa purity freaks

It's quackology. Along with your space aliens and
Nostradamus Nonsense.

agree with it. It's how they say humanity spread. A few

We live on land and traveled on land. Ancestors did not swim
around the world.

claim that it has been confirmed with finds along the
Arabian peninsular. Of course, our ancestors were already
in China more than 2 million years ago. The retrovirus

Well inland. erectus finds in South Africa in the same
time frame


https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw7293
3 Apr 2020

Contemporaneity of Australopithecus, Paranthropus,
and early Homo erectus in South Africa

"The DNH 134 cranium shares clear affinities with
Homo erectus, whereas the DNH 152 cranium represents
P. robustus. Stratigraphic analysis of the Drimolen
Main Quarry deposits indicates that unlike many
other South African sites, there was only one major
phase of relatively short deposition between ~2.04
million years ago and ~1.95 million years ago. ...
The DNH 134 cranium shares affinities with H.
erectus and predates all known specimens in that
species."

"The DNH 134 Homo cranium has affinities with H.
erectus and extends the species’ temporal range
by ~200,000 to 150,000 years. DNH 134 being older
than A. sediba complicates the likelihood of this
species being ancestral to Homo in South Africa,
as previously suggested. With the oldest occurrence
of H. erectus at the southern tip of Africa, this
argues against a suggested Asian origin for H.
erectus."

"We interpret the occurrence of Homo aff. erectus
at this time in South Africa, and soon after at
Dmanisi (73), as evidence for a major range
expansion of this species (covering at least 8000
km) both out of and within Africa around 2.0 to
1.8 Ma ago."

Ancestors went east later

evidence points to a (roughly) 3.7 million year occupation

What evidence is that?

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Marc Verhaegen wrote:

This idiot is wasting our time, JTEM: he assumes Drimolen DHN-134 is

erectus... :-DDD

From a post by Pandora Dec 27:
quote...
This is what a male A. robustus from Drimolen looks like (DNH 155,
cranial capacity 450 cc):

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01319-6/figures/2

Compare to DNH 134:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aaw7293#F2

Even a nincompoop like you should be able to notice the major
differences that would exclude DNH 134 from being a male A. robustus.

endquote...

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

JTEM is so reasonable wrote:

Primum Sapienti wrote:

You worship mv. Get help.

I came to Aquatic Ape quite independently to him, through

Along with space aliens and NostraDumbAss. Nuff said.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)