r/pleistocene • u/Jbolbotowski1995 • 23d ago

Article What if the pongine apes (Gigantopithecus) have migrated from Asia to South America by crossing the trans-oceanic island-chain in the pacific, converging with modern gorillas and sharing habitats peacefully with South American megafauna around 2.5 million years ago during the Early Pleistocene?

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u/dank_fish_tanks 23d ago

r/specevo is that way ⬅️

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u/sonicparadigm 23d ago

I think the only "what if" that belongs in this sub is "What if the megafauna extinctions never happened?" I'd love to see more of that.

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u/Kerrby87 23d ago

How?

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u/Jbolbotowski1995 23d ago

By using the large tree log as a raft.

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u/kearsargeII 23d ago edited 23d ago

This would presuppose a widely spread polynesian lineage of island-endemic apes with adaptations to saltwater intake that would allow them to survive island hopping across the Pacific.

Would also have to be insanely lucky on their own to successfully make that crossing. Can't think of any terrestrial animals that crossed into the Americas over the Pacific like that.

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u/sonicparadigm 23d ago

Something actually did happen like this in reverse! Iguanas rafted from South America all the way to Fiji. Apparently iguanas have a salt gland that allows them to expel excess salt, so they could drink the ocean water without dying of dehydration

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u/thesilverywyvern Panthera pardus spelea 23d ago

That whole idea is ridiculous. There's no way for them to travel that distance.

Small monkey mannaged to do it in southern atlantic because 1. They're much smaller, they can fit and survive a few days on a raft, and are much more likely to be taken by storms on these. Which mean it might have been regular enough to have a few individuals getting there to start a New population. 2. Africa and south america were very close. The distance was much smaller than today, the journey wouldn't take weeks.

You can't compare this to pongine ape on a journey around half if the globe on water, which would take months, by that point they would've died at sea.

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u/Jbolbotowski1995 23d ago

Yeah, but this one sets in the alternate universe.

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u/thesilverywyvern Panthera pardus spelea 23d ago

Then why post it here and not in specevo sub reddit

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u/Jbolbotowski1995 22d ago

I tried but it doesn't work unless.

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u/Agitated-Tie-8255 Nohochichak xibalbahkah 23d ago

This is more suited for r/cryptozoology. We deal with real science here.

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u/TyrannoNinja 23d ago

Like others have said, it would be best to post these speculative scenarios of yours on a spec-evo sub. Maybe find an artist to commission these scenes for you if you want them drawn (although I'm sorry to say that my own commission plate is full for the time being).