Indopithecus giganteus


Indopithecus giganteus is an extinct species of large ape that lived in the late Miocene of the Siwalik Hills in northern India. Although frequently assigned to the more well-known genus Gigantopithecus, recent authors consider it to be a distinct genus in its own right.

Fossils and description

Indopithecus is known only from teeth and jawbones found in the late Miocene of the Siwalik Hills, India. Based on the slim fossil finds, it was a large, ground-dwelling herbivore that ate primarily bamboo and foliage. Despite the species name, it was approximately half the size of its Chinese relative, Gigantopithecus blacki.
Indopithecus giganteus was originally named as a species of the European ape Dryopithecus, D. giganteus, by Pilgrim. However, Lewis decided that Pilgrim's taxon was not congeneric with Dryopithecus and instead referred it to the co-eval ape Sivapithecus. von Koenigswald recognized D. giganteus as being distinct from Dryopithecus and Sivapithecus and erected a new genus for it, Indopithecus. Szalay and Delson found similarities of the Indopithecus material to Gigantopithecus and synonymized the two genera, treating I. giganteus as a referred species, G. giganteus. However, recent authors, including Cameron, Pickford, Patnaik, Begun, and Welker et al., have argued that Indopithecus should be treated as generically distinct in its own right.
Gigantopithecus bilaspurensis was erected by Simon and Chopra for a few jaw bones and teeth from deposits in the Siwalk Hills of India dating to approximately 6 to 9 million years ago in the Miocene. Szalay and Delson recognized G. bilaspurensis as indistinguishable from known remains of Gigantopithecus giganteus, and synonymized the two taxa. Although giganteus is clearly related to G. blacki, Kelly and Cameron agreed with Szalay and Delson that bilaspurensis is a junior synonym of giganteus.