[ti:Study: Largest Ape Went Extinct Because of Climate Change]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]An ancient species of great ape
[00:04.04]likely disappeared hundreds of thousands of years ago
[00:08.96]when climate change put their favorite fruits
[00:12.60]out of reach during dry seasons,
[00:16.00]scientists recently reported.
[00:20.16]The species is known as Gigantopithecus blacki.
[00:26.40]It once lived in southern China.
[00:30.04]It stood 3 meters tall
[00:33.32]and weighed up to 295 kilograms.
[00:38.88]It represents the largest great ape known to scientists.
[00:45.16]"It's just a massive animal
[00:47.76]– just really, really big," said Renaud Joannes-Boyau.
[00:54.44]He is a researcher
[00:56.24]at Australia's Southern Cross University.
[01:01.24]He helped write the study,
[01:03.40]which recently appeared in the publication Nature.
[01:09.56]But its size may also have been a weakness.
[01:14.56]Joannes-Boyau said,
[01:17.04]"When food starts to be scarce,
[01:19.96]it's so big it can't climb trees
[01:23.16]to explore new food sources."
[01:27.24]The huge apes likely looked similar
[01:30.28]to the modern orangutan.
[01:33.36]It survived for around 2 million years
[01:37.16]in the forested land of China's Guangxi area.
[01:43.04]They ate plants that included fruits and flowers
[01:46.92]--- until the environment began to change.
[01:51.60]Starting about 600,000 years ago,
[01:55.12]Guangxi's forests began producing fewer fruits.
[02:00.96]The area was experiencing
[02:03.48]more periods of dry weather.
[02:07.08]Researchers examined pollen and sediment
[02:11.08]found in underground areas called caves
[02:15.16]to learn more about the changes and their effects.
[02:20.76]The giant apes did not disappear quickly,
[02:23.96]the researchers say.
[02:26.96]They likely went extinct sometime
[02:29.68]between 215,000 and 295,000 years ago.
[02:37.68]As the climate changed, smaller apes
[02:40.64]may have been able to climb trees
[02:43.56]to search for different food.
[02:46.88]But the researchers found that the giant apes
[02:50.56]ate more food that provided less nutrients.
[02:55.52]That less nutritious food included tree bark
[02:59.80]and thin grasses called reeds.
[03:03.92]"When the forest changed,
[03:05.76]there was not enough food
[03:07.76]preferred by the species,"
[03:10.16]said Zhang Yingqi of China's Institute
[03:13.92]of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
[03:20.92]He helped write the study.
[03:23.64]Most of what scientists
[03:26.04]know about the extinct great apes
[03:28.96]comes from studying their remains, or fossils.
[03:33.88]The fossilized bones they studied included teeth
[03:38.00]and four large lower jaw bones.
[03:42.24]All of the fossils were found in southern China.
[03:47.20]No complete skeletons have been found.
[03:50.56]Between around 2 million and 22 million years ago,
[03:55.88]many species of great apes lived
[03:58.72]in Africa, Europe, and Asia, fossil records show.
[04:03.68]Today, only gorillas, chimpanzees,
[04:08.00]bonobos, orangutans and humans remain.
[04:13.20]I'm Gregory Stachel. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM