New technique proves extinct giant ape was direct relative of orangutan
Gigantopithecus blacki, a three-metretall, 600kg, two-million-year-old ape, was related to the modern-day orangutan.
The discovery was made by researchers at the University of Copenhagen’s Globe Institute using protein sequencing techniques on a group of Gigantopithecus fossils found in southern China in 1935. As there are only a few lower jaws and teeth to go on – no complete skulls or other bones – there has been a lot of speculation about exactly what this mysterious animal would’ve looked like.
The team made the discovery using cutting-edge mass spectrometry techniques to examine proteins in the enamel of the fossilised teeth, and extract genetic information about the ancient animal’s lineage. This marks the first
time that genetic material this old has ever been retrieved from a warm, humid environment.
“By sequencing proteins retrieved from dental enamel that’s about two million years old, we showed it is possible to confidently reconstruct the evolutionary
relationships of animal species that went extinct too far away in time for their DNA to survive till now. In this study, we can even conclude that the lineages of orangutan and Gigantopithecus split up about 12 million years ago,” said the Globe Institute’s associate professor Enrico Cappellini, who was a senior author on the study.
The success of the new technique opens up possibilities to extend the genetic reconstruction of the evolutionary relationships between humans and extinct ancestral species further back in time, at least up to two million years – covering a much larger portion of human evolution than was previously possible.
“Primates are relatively close to humans, evolutionarily speaking. With this study, we show that we can use protein sequencing to retrieve ancient genetic information from primates living in subtropical areas, even when the fossil is two million years old. Until now, it has only been possible to retrieve genetic information from up to 10,000-yearold fossils in warm, humid areas,” said Globe Institute postdoctoral researcher Frido Welker. “This is interesting, because ancient remains of the supposed ancestors of our species, Homo sapiens, are also mainly found in subtropical areas, particularly for the early part of human evolution. This means that we can potentially retrieve similar information on the evolutionary line leading to humans.”