Re: GIGANTOPITHECUS

Phillip Bigelow (n8010095@cc.wwu.edu)
4 Nov 1995 14:35:51 -0800

Agneta.Guillemot@historia.umu.se (Ludvig Mortberg) writes:
>Gigantopithecus belonged to the pongine clade of hominoid evolution,
>together with orangutans and Sivapithecus etc. It had nothing
>whatsoever to do with human evolution or hominids. Hominids evolved
>5-8 Myrs ago when a chimpanzee suddenly rose up and decided to go
>bipedal

Actually, it wasn't a chimpanzee that evolved into hominidae.
Chimps and homindae share a common ancestor. That means that it wasn't
anagenesis. We don't KNOW what anthropoid primate gave rise to the
homindae.

> Did I say that molecular
>systematics has priority over other methods in systematics? Well it
>has.

Well, you must have *some* confidence in morphologic systematics;
otherwise you wouldn't be so sure of the systematic position of
Gigantopithicus! There is no Gigantopithicus protein or DNA available for
study!
<pb>