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A real life King Kong existed and this giant ape was Gigantopithecus that perished 100,000 years ago, said a team of scientists, as reported by University Herald.

According to Agence France Press, the huge primate succumbed to the climate change as with it perished the the forest fruit that he fed on. The ape weighed approximately 1,000 pounds and was at least 9-feet tall. He lived in Southern China and South eastern part of mainland China. "Unfortunately, there are very few fossil finds of Gigantopithecus - only a few large teeth and bones from the lower mandible are known," Hervé Bocherens, a researcher at the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP) and a professor at the University of Tübingen, told The Daily Mail. "But now, we are able to shed a little light on the obscure history of this primate."

While the remains that were found only detailed four partial lower jaws and a set of teeth that could not accurately depict the size, body type and other physical traits of the primate, however, the teeth did reveal that the ape was a vegetarian and did not eat bamboo for survival. It also helped determine its location which revealed that he lived in a semi-tropical environment. Even with these rigid conditions, the Gigantopithecus could survive until the Earth turned for the ice age during Pleistocene Epoch starting about 2.6 million years ago. "Relatives of the giant ape, such as the recent orangutan, have been able to survive despite their specialization on a certain habitat," Bocherens told The Daily Mail. "However, orangutans have a slow metabolism and are able to survive on limited food. "Due to its size, Gigantopithecus presumably depended on a large amount of food. "When during the Pleistocene era more and more forested areas turned into savanna landscapes, there was simply an insufficient food supply for the giant ape," says Latin Post