Gigantibithecus Blackie is the largest primate to ever walk the earth. This species was

really massive. Estimations are about three metres tall, probably weighed between about 200 and 300

kilograms, so pretty hefty. I think it's really the definition of enigmatic because it's so

mysterious. There's so many things we don't know about it. And it's that the definition of enigmatic because it's so mysterious.

There's so many things we don't know about it.

And it's that thing where you have a couple of pieces of the jigsaw, but most of the jigsaw is missing.

This is Origin Stories, the Leaky Foundation podcast.

I'm Meredith Johnson.

Today on the show, we're exploring the fascinating story of gigantapithecus, the most massive primate that ever lived. And we're talking with Dr. Kira Westaway.

She's a leaky Foundation grantee and geochronologist from Makari University in Sydney, Australia.

She's part of an international team of scientists

working to piece together the story of the greatest of all great apes.

Gigantapithecus stood nearly 10 feet tall,

twice the size of a gorilla.

It weighed around 600 pounds, so about as heavy as a grizzly bear,

and it roamed the forests of prehistoric China for millions of years before vanishing from the

face of the earth, leaving only small clues and a humongous mystery. How did it live? How was it

related to us? And why did it disappear? If you talk to most

panetologists, they'll say it's the golden chalice of palatology. You know, it's the thing that

really excites people about palatology. We know that it existed and we know it existed because

of the fossils that we find. And the only fossils we have in the last

85 years that they've been looking are four mandibles or four sections of a mandible and 2,000 teeth,

...