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Description

With the upcoming release for War for the Planet of the Apes I thought it would be fun to try something new for me and that was drawing hominoids more specifically the biggest hominoid of them all, something I definitely can work on a lot more. Although the big guy seems to be missing a leg (Corrected) has a few anatomical problems and overall looks a bit too chubby I’m reasonably happy with how this turned out.
Would the real Gigantopithecus Please Stand up?
Although the thought of Bigfoot like, King Kong sized giant apes once inhabiting the rain forests of Asia is certainly entertaining it unfortunately if likely based more on fiction than reality. Let’s be honest we would have all heard of this guy, Gigantopithecus blacki, the greatest of the great apes, a real life King Kong whose name literally means "Giant ape" truly a spectacle of a beats. But I think we have all been caught up in just how spectacular and unreal this animal seems that instead of examining it objectively as a real organism that once existed we in a way have been looking at the evidence through a filter created by our own bias. We all have been so influence and inspired by pop culture icons such as Bigfoot, Yeti and King Kong that we have developed an expectation of what Gigantopithecus should be like even if there is little to no evidence to support these hypotheses. Gigantopithecus was however without a doubt a very large ape and definitely the largest hominoid currently known but whether it was 10 to 12 feet tall and weighed over half a ton is questionable. When G. blacki was first described in 1935 by Koenigswald it was unclear how the animal should be classed because of the at the time and even today highly fragmented nature of the animal's remains. But a colleague of Koenigswald, Weidenreich suggested that Gigantopithecus should be classed as a hominin which he said was because of the similarities between human and Gigantopithecus dentition and based off of human proportions as well those of the later discovered early hominids like Australopithecus the 10 foot (3 meter) height for G. blacki came to be. However, as more remains were uncovered it became clear that Gigantopithecus was not a hominin at all and instead was much more closely related to the modern Orangutan placing it in the Ponginae family. But the 10 foot height caught on and was generally excepted from there on out and is because of the work of anthropologists like Dr. Grover Krantz Gigantopithecus is now commonly associated with so called mysterious primates such as Bigfoot despite there being literally no evidence to support this. But unfortunately because of the limited remains we have at our disposal the animal’s likeness still remains very ambiguous and its true size, weight, posture and life appearance will for the time being remain unknown but we can always speculate based off of modern animals and the evidence we do have. I propose a serious down scaling for G. black from 10 feet to perhaps 7 feet as based off of the proportions of both the Orangutan and Gorilla this would make the most sense and until further evidence is presented I think it would be wise to stay away from the overly sensationalist reconstructions. Thank you for reading.

Note: This particular reconstruction is based off of the "Old male" specimen (I couldn't find a catalogue number) and represents as the nickname would suggest a very large male specimen, please note the females would have been much smaller as is in modern great apes.

Edit: I have correcting the image adding the other back leg, I believe the animal looks a little more natural now.

Second Edit: Completely remade the image, I like it much better this was, it feels more ape like, feels more natural, the anatomy is much more realistic and I hope you agree.

Description

With the upcoming release for War for the Planet of the Apes I thought it would be fun to try something new for me and that was drawing hominoids more specifically the biggest hominoid of them all, something I definitely can work on a lot more. Although the big guy seems to be missing a leg (Corrected) has a few anatomical problems and overall looks a bit too chubby I’m reasonably happy with how this turned out.
Would the real Gigantopithecus Please Stand up?
Although the thought of Bigfoot like, King Kong sized giant apes once inhabiting the rain forests of Asia is certainly entertaining it unfortunately if likely based more on fiction than reality. Let’s be honest we would have all heard of this guy, Gigantopithecus blacki, the greatest of the great apes, a real life King Kong whose name literally means "Giant ape" truly a spectacle of a beats. But I think we have all been caught up in just how spectacular and unreal this animal seems that instead of examining it objectively as a real organism that once existed we in a way have been looking at the evidence through a filter created by our own bias. We all have been so influence and inspired by pop culture icons such as Bigfoot, Yeti and King Kong that we have developed an expectation of what Gigantopithecus should be like even if there is little to no evidence to support these hypotheses. Gigantopithecus was however without a doubt a very large ape and definitely the largest hominoid currently known but whether it was 10 to 12 feet tall and weighed over half a ton is questionable. When G. blacki was first described in 1935 by Koenigswald it was unclear how the animal should be classed because of the at the time and even today highly fragmented nature of the animal's remains. But a colleague of Koenigswald, Weidenreich suggested that Gigantopithecus should be classed as a hominin which he said was because of the similarities between human and Gigantopithecus dentition and based off of human proportions as well those of the later discovered early hominids like Australopithecus the 10 foot (3 meter) height for G. blacki came to be. However, as more remains were uncovered it became clear that Gigantopithecus was not a hominin at all and instead was much more closely related to the modern Orangutan placing it in the Ponginae family. But the 10 foot height caught on and was generally excepted from there on out and is because of the work of anthropologists like Dr. Grover Krantz Gigantopithecus is now commonly associated with so called mysterious primates such as Bigfoot despite there being literally no evidence to support this. But unfortunately because of the limited remains we have at our disposal the animal’s likeness still remains very ambiguous and its true size, weight, posture and life appearance will for the time being remain unknown but we can always speculate based off of modern animals and the evidence we do have. I propose a serious down scaling for G. black from 10 feet to perhaps 7 feet as based off of the proportions of both the Orangutan and Gorilla this would make the most sense and until further evidence is presented I think it would be wise to stay away from the overly sensationalist reconstructions. Thank you for reading.

Note: This particular reconstruction is based off of the "Old male" specimen (I couldn't find a catalogue number) and represents as the nickname would suggest a very large male specimen, please note the females would have been much smaller as is in modern great apes.

Edit: I have correcting the image adding the other back leg, I believe the animal looks a little more natural now.

Second Edit: Completely remade the image, I like it much better this was, it feels more ape like, feels more natural, the anatomy is much more realistic and I hope you agree.