Today I Learned (TIL)

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TIL that the largest ape species to ever have existed, Gigantopithecus blacki, a relative to orangutan, was discovered in a Hong Kong drugstore that sold molar teeth from it. (en.wikipedia.org)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

And yet that's not even the weirdest part of the article...

In 1956, the first mandible and more than 1,000 teeth were found in Liucheng, and numerous more remains have since been found in at least 16 sites. Only teeth and four mandibles are known currently, and other skeletal elements were likely consumed by porcupines before they could fossilise.

Edit: Also, how are you supposed to pronounce the species name "blacki"? Is that Latin or English?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 9 months ago

So a prickle of picky porcupines only partook in parts of prehistoric primates? Preposterous!