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Re: gigantopithecus blacki....stance
Susan S. Chin (susansf@netcom.com)
Sat, 23 Nov 1996 18:01:10 GMT
Jos Herculano (herculano@mail.telepac.pt) wrote:
: > or does the conensus argue
: > that it was quadriped, like all modern great apes
: Great apes are not quadriped. Correct term is knuckle walkers.
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: Jos Herculano
A quadruped is any creature using all four limbs for moving around on the
ground. In that sense, apes are quadrupedal knuckle walkers.
Quadrupedalism and knuckle walking are not mutually exclusive.
Regarding Gigantopithecus, it has some hominid like features in it's
dental anatomy such as relatively small and vertically implanted
incisors, reduced canines (worn down by chewing of vegetable matter),
lack of diastema, which lead some to propose a possible hominid ancestry.
Whether Gigantopithecus is a hominid or not is impossible to say, unless
the cranial regions and postcranial anatomy has been recovered. The
alternate interpretation of Gigantopithecus dental similiarities to later
Australopithecines is that of parallel evolution, adaptations to an open
environment, and the "small-object-feeding complex." Gigantopithecus is
often considered a large miocene to late pleistocene aged ape. It's
hominid affinities probably go the way of Ramapithecus.
Susan
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susansf@netcom.com
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