Mysterious demise of ‘the real King Kong’ solved by new fossil analysis, scientists say

The largest monkey ever was almost three meters tall and weighed almost twice as much as a gorilla. Why and when the legendary behemoth - which has captivated the popular imagination as "the real King Kong" - disappeared is one of the greatest mysteries in paleontology.

German-Dutch paleontologist GHR von Koenigswald first identified Gigantopithecus blacki about a century ago from large teeth sold in a Hong Kong pharmacy as medicinal "dragon bones." About 2,000 fossilized teeth and four jawbones from ...