''Indopithecus giganteus'' () is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

of large

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

that lived in the late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

of the

Siwalik Hills The Sivalik Hills, also known as Churia Hills, are a mountain range of the outer Himalayas. The literal translation of "Sivalik" is 'tresses of Shiva'. The hills are known for their numerous fossils, and are also home to the Soanian Middle Pale ...

in northern

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Although frequently assigned to the more well-known genus ''

Gigantopithecus ''Gigantopithecus'' ( ) is an extinct genus of ape that lived in southern China from 2 million to approximately 300,000–200,000 years ago during the Early Pleistocene, Early to Middle Pleistocene, represented by one species, ''Gigantopithecus ...

'', recent authors consider it to be a distinct genus in its own right.

Fossils and description

''Indopithecus'' is known only from teeth and jawbones found in the late Miocene of the Siwalik Hills, India. Based on the slim

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

finds, it was a large, ground-dwelling

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

that ate primarily

bamboo Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial plant, perennial flowering plants making up the subfamily (biology), subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family Poaceae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family, in th ...

and foliage. Despite the specific name, it was approximately half the length of its Chinese relative, '' Gigantopithecus blacki''. ''Indopithecus giganteus'' was originally named as a species of the European ape '' Dryopithecus'', ''D. giganteus'', by Guy Ellcock Pilgrim in 1915, based on a large lower third molar,

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

GSI-D175. However, George Edward Lewis in 1937 decided that Pilgrim's taxon was not congeneric with ''Dryopithecus'' and instead referred the molar to the co-eval ape '' Sivapithecus indicus''. Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Koenigswald in 1950 recognized ''D. giganteus'' as being distinct from ''Dryopithecus'' and ''Sivapithecus'' and erected a new genus for it, ''Indopithecus'' ("ape from India"). Szalay and Delson (1979) found similarities of the ''Indopithecus'' material to ''Gigantopithecus'' and synonymized the two genera, treating ''I. giganteus'' as a referred species, ''G. giganteus''. However, recent authors, including David Cameron (2001, 2003), Pickford (2010), Patnaik (2014), Begun (2015), and Welker et al. (2019), have argued that ''Indopithecus'' should be treated as generically distinct in its own right. ''Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis'' was erected by Elwyn LaVerne Simons and Chopra (1969) for paired lower jaw bones and teeth from deposits in the Siwalk Hills of

dating to approximately 6 to 9 million years ago in the

, specimen Chandigarh-Yale Project No. 359/68, in April 1968 found by G.E. Meyer. The specific name refers to Bilaspur. Szalay and Delson (1979) recognized ''G. bilaspurensis'' as indistinguishable from known remains of ''Gigantopithecus giganteus'', and synonymized the two taxa. Although ''giganteus'' is clearly related to ''G. blacki'', Kelly (2002) and Cameron (2001, 2003) agreed with Szalay and Delson (1979) that ''bilaspurensis'' is a junior synonym of ''giganteus''.Kelley J., 2002. The hominoid radiation in Asia. pp. 369-384. In: Hartwig W.C, editor. ''The primate fossil record.'' Cambridge University Press; Cambridge, UK: 2002.. oogle Scholar

References

Ponginae Prehistoric apes Miocene primates of Asia Fossil taxa described in 1915 {{paleo-primate-stub