Gigantopithecus

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Translingual

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Gigantopithecus giganteus, replica of a fossil jawbone

Etymology

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

Proper noun

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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

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Further reading

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