Slashdot Mirror
King Kong Lived?
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."
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..
I like muppets.
"Oh no. It wasn't the asteroids. T'was beauty that killed the beast!"
.
-- thinkyhead software and media
Bigfoot/Yeti? Sea Monsters?
I for one welcome our, wait they died out! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!
All sorts of strange creatures existed during the plasticine era. I thought everyone knew that.
Body-mass index of 66.7. Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater. No wonder they got extinct.
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
... can now speak about the 600 Kg gorilla. Good.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
a gigantic ape, measuring over 3 meters tall and weighing up to 600kg, that supposedly co-existed alongside humans."
We still have these today. You can track one down by listening for its unmistakable cry; "Developers! Developers! Developers!"
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Is there anyone from Kansas with some *plausible* theories about this monkey?
I see apes like that all the time here on campus. But we don't have a fancy name for them - here they're called, "offensive linemen."
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?
With a BMI of 600/(3^2) = 66.6 he was one big fat ape (the healthy limit for a human is 25). I guess these creatures were intelligent enough to invent fast food and maple syrup pancakes.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
In fact, TFA says "Research into Gigantopithecus blackii began in 1935". (70 years ago, recent on the geological scale, perhaps.) The article is about a new dating method that determined that the ape "roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago", the same period humans were developing, and thus the possibility of interaction, or that we wiped them out.
The hell is this doing on Slashdot? It's in my freaking anthro textbook, fer chrissakes. My textbook.
... next you're gonna tell me godzilla lived. Like there ever were a bunch of giant lizard roaming the earth. That's just silly.
Not so easily. First off, large heads will require proportionately broad hips at least, else the species will run into severe difficulties reproducing itself. Second, the proportion of head (or more accurately brain) size to body size is roughly correlated to intelligence - for instance an elephant has a bigger brain than I do, but also a much bigger body. A head as disproportionately large as you suggest would suggest that these apes were very bright - so why do we rule the world?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
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.
This space is intentionally staring blankly at you
Maybe, just maybe, because the majority of people in the world do use metric?
What have 20% of the moderators been smoking?
The aforementioned giant penis?
"The problem with our economy is that our budget is balanced by people who aren't" - A.E.N.