Gigantopithecus and Megantropes: giant apes and men in our past
The ancient myths of human culture tell of giant men who once walked our planet, beings considered to be of divine origin and possessed of supernatural powers. The first to talk about it were the Sumerians, according to whom the Anunnaki descended from heaven to create humanity and teach it civilization and technology.
Even in the traditions of ancient Egypt, stories of giant beings were handed down. The ancient historian Josephus Flavius bears witness to this, writing in 79 AD:
“In Egypt there were giants. Much larger and differently shaped than normal people. Terrible to look at. Anyone who hasn't seen it with my eyes can't believe that they were so immense."
The Bible, one of the most sacred books of humanity, tells of a time in which giants and men lived side by side on the Earth ("There were giants on the earth in those days - and also after -, when the children of God were united to the daughters of men”, Genesis 6:4). Attracted by the beauty of human women, the "sons of God" united with earthly females, giving life to those who are defined as Nephilim in apocryphal sources.
Also in the Bible, these enigmatic giant beings, including the Goliath defeated by David, are defined as "descendants of Anak", taking up the Sumerian root of the term Anunnaki:
“The land we crossed to explore is a land that devours its inhabitants; all the people that we saw there are people of high stature. There we saw the giants, descendants of Anak, of the race of giants, before whom we seemed to be like locusts, and so we must have seemed to them", Nm 13,32.
And how can we forget the Chtons of Greek mythology, divine creatures united by their characteristic height, and the Cyclopes, located by the Greeks in Sicily and a source of inspiration for the Polyphemus described by Homer in his Odyssey.
Is it possible that these ancient myths and tales refer to giant beings who actually existed on our planet? How to interpret the enigmatic discoveries of gigantic bones by paleontologists, findings that seem to challenge all theories developed on the path of human evolution? And if such giants really existed, who are we dealing with, a lost giant human race, or beings from somewhere else in the cosmos?
The case of the Gigantopithecus
Over the last two centuries, archaeologists and paleontologists have come into possession of disconcerting finds that call into question the theories developed so far to explain the process that led to the evolution of Homo Sapiens starting from arboreal primates.
Giant skulls, mandibles with enormous teeth and gigantic femurs have been found in different areas of the planet, demonstrating that there is a big "hole" in the theories that explain the evolution of the Homo species. Very slowly, the scientific community is becoming convinced that in the not too distant past, gigantic hominids existed on planet Earth.
One of the most documented and accepted cases by science is that of Gigantopitecus, which came to the attention of scientists in 1935, thanks to the discovery of some mysterious molars by the German paleontologist Ralph Von Koenigswald in a pharmacy in Hong Kong. The researcher immediately realized that he was faced with the remains of a gigantic primate, perhaps the largest hominid to have inhabited the planet.
Based on the size of the molar, 2.5 centimeters on each side, it is thought that the gigantic creature measured up to three meters in height and had a body weight of 500 kilograms. Von Koenigswald's research continued for four years, but with the beginning of the Second World War the paleontologist was taken prisoner and forced to interrupt his studies.
A recent analysis of the Hong Kong find, carried out by chronogeologist Jack Rink of the University of Ontario, has made it possible to establish that this astonishing hominid existed for almost a million years, becoming extinct around 100 thousand years ago, during the Pleistocene. The researchers hypothesize that the Gigantopithecus shared the environment in which it lived with Homo Erectus, to be placed in Southeast Asia.
“This primate coexisted with humans at a time when early homo underwent great evolutionary change,” explains Rink.
In fact, in some subsequent investigations, researchers have found other fossil remains of the gigantic creatures, especially mandibles in Guangxhi province in southern China, the same region where some think the modern human species originated.
With the few finds available, scientists were able to reconstruct the actual size of the hominid. “The size of the finds, such as the crown of the molar, allowed us to understand the extraordinary dimensions of this being,” concludes Rink.
Although the cause of the extinction remains unknown, researchers hypothesize that the Gigantopithecus suffered the consequences of significant climate changes and competition from new species of hominids, smaller, more agile and easily adaptable to new environmental conditions.
The question of the Yeti
While the majority of scientists believe that the Gigantopithecus definitively became extinct 100,000 years ago, some cryptozoologists believe that the gigantic ape still exists and is the origin of the numerous stories and sightings of the enormous hairy creatures seen wandering the woods.
According to them, legendary creatures such as the Yeti and the Bigfoot are nothing more than variants of the Gigantopithecus that have survived to this day. There are still many searching for definitive proof of the Yeti's existence, and the pursuit of him is supported by the constant stream of sightings, occasional photos and giant foot prints.
Most of the evidence in favor, however, comes from eyewitnesses and anecdotes, unfortunately the least reliable and virtually worthless type of testimony from a scientific point of view. In the absence of concrete evidence, such as a live or dead specimen, bones, teeth, blood or hair, the question of the existence of Bigfoot remains open.
Meganthropic hypothesis
A group of researchers enters the debate on the discovery of the Gigantopithecus, convinced that the extraordinary gigantic finds cannot be attributed to a gigantic ape, but to a race of giant men who once inhabited our planet.
According to this group, the findings should be attributed to the so-called "Meganthrope", a term which identifies a set of controversial finds made up of oversized jaws and fragments of enormous skulls.
Franz Weidenreich, a German anatomist expert in physical anthropology, a contemporary of Ralph Von Koenigswald, on the basis of the numerous finds found in the region, theorized that in addition to the Gigantopithecus, there existed a species of Meganthrope that descended from the gigantic primate. Most paleoanthropologists believe that Meganthropus is somehow related to Homo Erectus, but it is not yet understood how close it is to it.
However, although there seems to be substantial consensus, opinion among scholars is somewhat varied. Many remain convinced that the Megantropes are evidence of the existence of ancient giants. We are talking about individuals up to 3 meters tall, with a weight varying between 340 and 450 kilograms, dimensions much larger than any Homo Erectus found so far, in the order of 2 to 4 times the mass of the body.
