Meet the gigantopithecus, the largest ape ever lived

Gigantopithecus is an extinct genus of ape from the Early to Middle Pleistocene of southern China, represented by one species, G. blacki. ... Gigantopithecus was once argued to be a hominin, a member of the human line, but it is now thought to be closely allied with orangutans, classified in the subfamily Ponginae.

Little is known about the mysterious Gigantopithecus blacki, a distant relative to orangutans that stood up to 10 feet (3 meters) tall and weighed up to 595 lbs. (270 kilograms). Scientists know almost nothing about the mysterious ape.



They were enormous – standing approximately 9 feet tall and weighing around 1,000 pounds. An interesting fact about Gigantopithecus is that judging them according to their great size, then they must have been extremely strong. They could have been anywhere from 12 to 20 times stronger than a modern human being!

Gigantopithecus blacki, the largest ape that ever lived, stood 3m tall and weighed over 500kg. Its enormous bulk and brute strength kept Gigantopithecus safe from the predators it lived alongside – including tigers, leopards and black bears.