News Anthropology

Ancient giant orangutans evolved smaller bodies surprisingly slowly

The now-extinct animals were still considerably larger than their modern kin

an orangutan holding onto a vine

Fossil discoveries in southern China suggest that a now-extinct orangutan species gradually shrank in size over nearly 2 million years, but still remained considerably larger than modern orangutans such as this one.

Anup Shah/Stone/Getty Images

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

Giant orangutans that once dwelled in mainland Southeast Asian forests belonged to a single species that gradually shrank in size over nearly 2 million years, a study suggests.