That very article says it?s far from clear they walked upright.
Quote:
Gigantopithecus's method of locomotion is uncertain, as no pelvic or leg bones have been found. The dominant view is that it walked on all fours like modern gorillas and chimpanzees; however, a minority opinion favors bipedal locomotion. This was most notably championed by the late Grover Krantz, but this assumption is based only on the very few jawbone remains found, all of which are U-shaped and widen towards the rear. This allows room for the windpipe to be within the jaw, allowing the skull to sit squarely upon a fully erect spine as in modern humans, rather than roughly in front of it, as in the other great apes.
The majority view is that the weight of such a large, heavy animal would put enormous stress on the creature's legs, ankles, and feet if it walked bipedally; while if it walked on all four limbs, like gorillas, its weight would be better distributed over each limb.
So primates can be 3 m tall by having an extremely robust build. It?d be hard to develop a human-like brain in that body, if you consider our remote ancestors used to have much stronger muscles (like those of a gorilla, or even a chimp) and had to lose them in order to save energy as their brain demanded more and more.
At any rate, a
Gigantopithecus? height is still a far cry from what you?d need in order to carry stones like the ones you showed earlier in this thread without elaborate machinery and coöperation, and, if you have this, modern humans can do it, too.
_________________
The red lake has been forgotten. A dust devil stuns you long enough to shroud forever those last shards of wisdom. The breeze rocking this forlorn wasteland whispers in your ears, “Não resta mais que uma sombra”.
22 Aug 2014, 8:30 am
