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Now on display in the Iowa Hall lobby (June 2006):


A Sloth Reunion: adult and juvenile reunited

Also on display in the Iowa Hall lobby:

To Dig a Sloth

designed and constructed by intern Peter Gill (summer 2004)

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The Largest Ape in Existence
Location: ground floor of Macbride Hall

Gigantopithecus blacki was the largest ape that ever existed. "Giganto" inhabited the jungles of Southeast Asia as recently as 300,000 years ago. Its encounters with early humans, Homo erectus, may have inspired the apeman myths that occur in many cultures.

An adult male Gigantopithecus stood ten feet tall and weighed 1200 pounds. Females were much smaller. Like most herbivores, they probably moved slowly to conserve energy. The apes' diet consisted of fruit and bamboo. Humans may have contributed to Giganto's extinction by competing for these food sources.

The Gigantopithecus model is based on the research of University of Iowa paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon and the fossil jawbones and teeth collected from China and Vietnam in 1988 and 1989.

Exhibit Designers
Charles Monson is a former student-staff member of the Museum and is currently a graduate student in Geoscience.	Song Rufen is Curator and Chief of the Division for Research and Exhibits at the Beijing Natural History Museum. She studied at the UI as a visiting scholar and volunteered at the Museum and in the Department of Geoscience.

More about Giganto

The Kallam Collection (removed from display October, 2000)