Natural selection in giraffes
Natural Selection in Giraffes
Taylor Merrow
This article shows natural selction in Giraffes and will show you a what changes occured to have those big spotted necks that everybody loves. The Giraffe neck is one of the most questioned things in the evolutionary theory, read more to find out how!
One of the first evolutionary thinks, Jean-Baptist Lamarck, gave a breif description of how the giraffe evolved. He published this description in 1809. "It is interesting to observe the result of habit in the peculiar shape and size of the giraffe: this animal, the tallest of the mammals, is known to live in the interior of Africa in places where the soil is nearly always arid and barren, so that it is obliged to browse on the leaves of trees and to make constant efforts to reach them. From this habit long maintained in all its race, it has resulted that the animal's forelegs have become longer than its hind-legs, and that its neck is lengthened to such a degree that the giraffe, without standing up on its hind-legs, attains a height of six meters."
The ancestors of todays giraffe is imagined to look like an antelope or deer, so imagine living in an area where what you can reach for food isnt doing you any good. You would do your best job to find what food you could to survive, right? The only place they had to go for food was up, up in these trees where there was vegetation and food for them, but they were too small. So over time, they began to evolve, growing longer necks to reach this food. A place that only they are going to reach, theres a term that I personally really like to use to describe evolutionary theory in a sense, survival of the fittest. Having there long necks let these animals survive and outlive others.
At the bottom of this article is an example of a giraffe putting its long neck to use. Think about this, what other animal is going to reach that spot? Maybe a monkey?
Giraffes are said to have an original phase of course or "short neck" phase, they are said to have had a breif "middle neck" phase and then of course the "long neck" phase that we are living with today. Male giraffes are about 1-2 meters taller than a female giraffe on average. Male giraffes also feed more than the female giraffes. Giraffes still eat from ground and low levels and drink but they also dont eat way up high, they are said to eat a majority of heir time at shoulder level or slightly above, they also use these long necks to get them selves deeper into treees or bushes that might not be so high in the air. So with these long necks they are extremely versatile and it most certainly makes them able to survive with the fittest.
Here is a photo showing the giraffe leg and neck evolution.
Giraffes are a great example of the evolutionary theory, yet not having a ton of fossils to experiment on and explore, they are still documented well and obvioulsy well enough known that one of the guys who discovered evolutionary theory commented on this subject of the giraffe neck. This evolution to their bodies was done to survive, being able to create this change over time is evolution and this is a good example to prove the theory. This really does prove one of my favorite metaphors, survival of the fittest.
Taylor Merrow
This article shows natural selction in Giraffes and will show you a what changes occured to have those big spotted necks that everybody loves. The Giraffe neck is one of the most questioned things in the evolutionary theory, read more to find out how!
One of the first evolutionary thinks, Jean-Baptist Lamarck, gave a breif description of how the giraffe evolved. He published this description in 1809. "It is interesting to observe the result of habit in the peculiar shape and size of the giraffe: this animal, the tallest of the mammals, is known to live in the interior of Africa in places where the soil is nearly always arid and barren, so that it is obliged to browse on the leaves of trees and to make constant efforts to reach them. From this habit long maintained in all its race, it has resulted that the animal's forelegs have become longer than its hind-legs, and that its neck is lengthened to such a degree that the giraffe, without standing up on its hind-legs, attains a height of six meters."
The ancestors of todays giraffe is imagined to look like an antelope or deer, so imagine living in an area where what you can reach for food isnt doing you any good. You would do your best job to find what food you could to survive, right? The only place they had to go for food was up, up in these trees where there was vegetation and food for them, but they were too small. So over time, they began to evolve, growing longer necks to reach this food. A place that only they are going to reach, theres a term that I personally really like to use to describe evolutionary theory in a sense, survival of the fittest. Having there long necks let these animals survive and outlive others.
At the bottom of this article is an example of a giraffe putting its long neck to use. Think about this, what other animal is going to reach that spot? Maybe a monkey?
Giraffes are said to have an original phase of course or "short neck" phase, they are said to have had a breif "middle neck" phase and then of course the "long neck" phase that we are living with today. Male giraffes are about 1-2 meters taller than a female giraffe on average. Male giraffes also feed more than the female giraffes. Giraffes still eat from ground and low levels and drink but they also dont eat way up high, they are said to eat a majority of heir time at shoulder level or slightly above, they also use these long necks to get them selves deeper into treees or bushes that might not be so high in the air. So with these long necks they are extremely versatile and it most certainly makes them able to survive with the fittest.
Here is a photo showing the giraffe leg and neck evolution.
Giraffes are a great example of the evolutionary theory, yet not having a ton of fossils to experiment on and explore, they are still documented well and obvioulsy well enough known that one of the guys who discovered evolutionary theory commented on this subject of the giraffe neck. This evolution to their bodies was done to survive, being able to create this change over time is evolution and this is a good example to prove the theory. This really does prove one of my favorite metaphors, survival of the fittest.