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===Research history===
[[Image:F. Schrenk mit Gigantopithecus-Molar 2005.jpg|thumb|left|{{Interlanguage link multi|Friedemann Schrenk|de}} holding the [[holotype]] ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' [[Molar (tooth)|molar]]]]
''Gigantopithecus blacki'' was named by anthropologist [[Ralph von Koenigswald]] in 1935 based on two third lower [[molar teeth]], which, he noted, were of enormous size (the first was "''Ein gewaltig grosser (...) Molar''", the second was described as "''der enorme Grösse besitzt''"), measuring {{convert|20|x|22|mm|abbr=in|frac=8}}.<ref name=Koenigswald1935/> The specific name ''blacki'' is in honour of Canadian palaeoanthropologist [[Davidson Black]], who had studied human evolution in China and had died the previous year. Von Koenigswald, working for the [[Dutch East Indies]] Mineralogical Survey on Java, had found the teeth in a drugstore in [[Hong Kong]] where they were being sold as "[[dragon bones]]" to be used in [[traditional Chinese medicine]]. By 1939, after purchasing more teeth, he determined they had originated somewhere in [[Guangdong]] or [[Guangxi]]. He could not formally describe the [[type specimen]] until 1952 due to his [[internment]] by Japanese forces during [[World War II]]. The originally discovered teeth are part of the collection of the [[University of Utrecht]].<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/><ref name=Hartwig2002/> While on [[Java]], with the onset of [[World War II]], von Koenigswald put the ''Gigantopithecus'' teeth in a milk bottle and buried them in a friend's backyard before being interned by Japanese forces. After the war, he recovered the fossils and moved to [[New York City]] and could not continue research on the subject.<ref name=Zhang2024/>
In 1955, a survey team that was led by Chinese palaeontologist [[Pei Wenzhong]] was tasked by the Chinese [[Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology|Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology]] (IVPP) with finding the original ''Gigantopithecus'' locality. They collected 47 teeth among shipments of "dragon bones" in Guangdong and Guangxi. In 1956, the team discovered the first ''[[in situ]]'' remains, a third molar and [[premolar]], in a cave (subsequently named "''Gigantopithecus'' Cave") in [[Niusui Mountain]], Guangxi. Also in 1956, [[Liucheng County|Liucheng]] farmer Tan Xiuhuai discovered more teeth and the first [[mandible]] on his field. From 1957 to 1963, the IVPP survey team carried out excavations in this area including most especially Yanyan Cave and recovered two more mandibles and more than 1,000 teeth.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017/><ref name="Hartwig2002"/><ref name="Coichon1991">{{cite journal |last=Coichon |first=Russell L. |author-link=Russell Ciochon |year=1991 |title=The ape that was – Asian fossils reveal humanity's giant cousin |url=http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/giganto.html |url-status=unfit |journal=Natural History |volume=100 |pages=54–62 |issn=0028-0712 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525202625/http://www.uiowa.edu/~bioanth/giganto.html |archive-date=25 May 2015}}</ref><ref name="Poirier1999">{{cite book| first1=F.E. |last1=Poirier |first2=J.K. |last2=McKee | title=Understanding Human Evolution |edition= fourth | publisher=Prentice Hall |___location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |year=1999| page=119 |isbn=0-13-096152-3}}</ref> {{As of|2024}}, Yanyan Cave is the most productive ''Gigantopithecus'' site.<ref name=Zhang2024/> In 2014, a fourth confirmed mandible was discovered in [[Yanliang]], Central China.<ref name=Zhang2014>{{cite journal|first1=Y.|last1=Zhang|first2=C.|last2=Jin|display-authors=et al.|year=2015|title=A fourth mandible and associated dental remains of ''Gigantopithecus blacki'' from the Early Pleistocene Yanliang Cave, Fusui, Guangxi, South China|journal=Historical Biology|volume=28|issue=1–2|pages=95–104|doi=10.1080/08912963.2015.1024115|s2cid=130928802}}</ref><ref name=Zhang2024/> Indicated by extensive [[rodent]] gnawing marks, teeth primarily accumulated in caves likely due to [[Old World porcupine|porcupine]] activity. Porcupines gnaw on bones to obtain nutrients necessary for quill growth, and can haul large bones into their underground dens and consume them entirely, except the hard, enamel-capped crowns of teeth. This may explain why teeth are typically found in great quantity, and why remains other than teeth are so rare.<ref name=ZhangHarrison2017>{{cite journal|last1= Zhang|first1= Y.|last2= Harrison|first2= T.|title= ''Gigantopithecus blacki'': a giant ape from the Pleistocene of Asia revisited|journal= American Journal of Physical Anthropology|volume= 162|issue= S63|year= 2017|pages= 153–177|doi= 10.1002/ajpa.23150|doi-access= free|pmid= 28105715}}</ref><ref name=Zhang2024/>
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