Publication Date
10-1-1969
Series Number
138
Abstract
A nearly complete mandible of Gigantopithecus representing a new species, Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis, is described. The specimen lacks incisors, left P4 and the posterior portions of both rami. Even so, it is the most complete Pre-Pleistocene hominoid mandible ever found in the Indian subcontinent. Found in the Dhok Pathan beds northwest of Haritalyangar, India, it is of middle Pliocene age. It is also the most complete higher primate mandible of its age known from any site in the world. In various ways the new specimen resembles species of Australopithecus, Ramapithecus and Dryopithecus more than does the specialized Chinese Pleistocene species Gigantopithecus blacki. In consequence of these resemblances the new Indian find tends to strengthen the close phyletic relationships already suggested by some, on the basis of other finds, for these four genera. It is suggested that in all probability Gigantopithecus is derived from a species of Dryopithecus and not from Apidium via Oreopithecus — a position which before this new discovery in India remained a possibility. Thus the new find further demonstrates that Gigantopithecus, although well off the line of direct human ancestry, has definite resemblances in the biomechanics of its jaws and teeth to unquestioned Hominidae. Differences in details of this functional system suggest that these features of Gigantopithecus may have arisen in parallel with the similar mandibular and dental mechanics of Ramapithecus and Australopithecus.