The ape went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago, according to the new study.
As the climate of southeast Asia changed, G. blacki could not change its eating habits or habitat.
Its geographic footprint diminished, and before long, only fossilized teeth remained.
An artist’s impression of a group of G. blacki.Illustration: Garcia/Joannes-Boyau (Southern Cross University)
The new research ispublishedtoday in Nature.
The unresolved cause of its disappearance has become the Holy Grail in this discipline.
Scant evidence of G. blacki remains, tucked away in caves in southeast Asia.
An artist’s concept of G. blacki’s face.Photo: Garcia/Joannes-Boyau (Southern Cross University)
The apes fossil record is comprised of four mandibles and 2,000 teeth, the recent team reports.
Prior to that, Zhang had found six caves containing G. blacki remains over the course of a decade.
Blacki resorted to less nutritious foods.
And of course, three orangutan species remain extant, althoughall are critically endangered.
Going back to past unresolved extinctions and determining the causes helps us understand species responses to environmental stresses.
This has massive implications for our living primates such as modern orangutans and mountain gorillas.
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