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King Kong Lived?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the still-wishing-for-opposable-thumbs dept.

Agent Provocateur writes "McMaster University recently announced the discovery of the remains of a gigantic ape, measuring over 3 meters tall and weighing up to 600kg, that supposedly co-existed alongside humans." From the article: "Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years."

11 of 404 comments (clear)

  1. Makes me wonder.. by Turn-X+Alphonse · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Makes me wonder if someone was paid to withhold this information untill King Kong's release or is being paid to release it when it's unconfirmed..

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    1. Re:Makes me wonder.. by zippthorne · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I think it's a kind of symbiosis. The scientists themselves aren't witholding th einformation, but like the hobbits of new zealand, or the astronomy news before armageddon, the publishers tend to print things that are relevant to whatever the big advertising push is. If the movie weren't coming out, would this story be interesting to as many people? It's just about which news gets pushed when, not about specific things waiting for movies.

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  2. Birth of a Legend by core+plexus · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Are not many legends born of some fact? Look at The Bible, for example, and many creation legends (Raven created the Earth sounds a lot like Genesis). Also, many people believe iceworms are mere legends, but it seems that they may provide some insight

    Bigfoot/Yeti? Sea Monsters?

  3. Re:Oh, the irony... by falzer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Sounds highly speculative. BTW, Koenig is german for 'king.'

    Did you look around any other sources on the internet to check for other, older references to Koenigswald? Or Gigantopithecus blackii?

  4. Re:Oh, the irony... by MadMoses · · Score: 2, Interesting


            Research into Gigantopithecus blackii began in 1935, when the Dutch paleontologist G.H. von Koenigswald discovered a yellowish molar among the "dragon bones" for sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy.

    Hmmm, the 30's and the word "kong" in there twice?

    Even stranger: "Koenig" is German for King.

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  5. PromoPower! by jlraptor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Anyone else hope this turns out to be some gimmick to boost interest in the King King movie?

    What the hell are we gonna do with ten thousand angel ashtrays?

  6. um... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    i think the article was carefully worded to imply that new evidence was found. the only actual evidence mentioned in the whole article was the teeth people began finding in 1935. what was the new evidence? more teeth? so, i'm assuming all they did was carbon dated those teeth, "calculated" some dates, and photoshopped a gorilla sketch into this giant ape thing. pretty slick of this guy (and his school) to take credit for doing so little.

  7. Raise the bar a bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This is old news from 2004, and published then. Why all the rush now?;

    Morwood, J.J., Soejono, R.P., Roberts, R.G., Sutikna, T., Turney, C.S.M., Westaway, K.E., Rink, W.J., Zhao, J.-x., van den Bergh, G.D., Rokus Awe Due, Hobbs, D.R., Moore, M.W., Bird, M.I. and Fifield, L.K. (2004) Archaeology and age of new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia. Nature 431, 1087-1091

  8. 100,000 years humans did not walk in asia by nietsch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you take a look at this map, it suggests that modern man entered asia only about 70-60,000 years ago. So this ceartue may not have lived alongside early humans.
    Human history isn't that old really, wikipedia pegs the start of H.Sapiens at 200,000 years ago, and most of that time has been spent in Africa.

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    1. Re:100,000 years humans did not walk in asia by nietsch · · Score: 4, Interesting

      True, wikipedia is a source that you can never trust 100% for the reasons you cite. That is why I mentioned I got the info from wikipedia. It was just the first source google came up with that answered my question. I do not know about the other sites that google offered, so this is a good as any. Better the evil you know...

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  9. Impossible! by drcagn · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This is impossible! My math teacher in high school told me that this is impossible because the ratio of mass to surface area is too great, preventing the animal from dissipating heat or providing for the body, therefore dying out. Elephants have a low mass to surface area ratio in their trunks, so they're okay, but king kong doesn't have a trunk. Yeah, I'm just sputtering something I vaguely remember from high school...

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