Gigantopithecus

Translingual

Gigantopithecus giganteus, replica of a fossil jawbone

Etymology

From New Latin, from Ancient Greek Γίγαντος (Gígantos) (genitive of Γίγας (Gígas, “Giant”)) + πίθηκος (píthēkos, “ape”).

Proper noun

†Gigantopithecus m

1. A taxonomic genus within the family Hominidae – an ape that existed from roughly one million years to as recently as three-hundred thousand years ago, in what is now China, India, and Vietnam.
   • 1983, Valjean McLenighan, China, A History to 1949‎^[1], Chicago: Children's Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 10:

     The first real human beings in China lived about 600,000 years ago. Fossils of Gigantopithecus, a Latin name for Giant Ape, were dug up at Lan-t'ien in the early 1960s. Though they looked a lot like apes, the Lan-t'ien people were among the first of our species to make tools.

Hyponyms

• (genus): Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis, Gigantopithecus blacki, Gigantopithecus giganteus (extinct species)

Further reading

• Gigantopithecus on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Gigantopithecus on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Gigantopithecus on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons