Giraffe Evolution


 
African okapiCharles Darwin‘s story of how the giraffe got its long neck is one of the most popular and widely-told stories in the history of evolution. At the center of the giraffe evolution story is the African okapi (pictured left). The story begins with Darwin speculating on a transitional link. In The Origin of Species,  Darwin wrote –

“It seems to me almost certain that an ordinary hoofed quadruped might be converted into a giraffe.”

The African okapI (pictured), eventually caught-on as Darwin’s elusive transitional link, the “hoofed quadruped,” later in the nineteenth century. As instructed by Darwin –

“We should always look for forms intermediate between each species.”

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How the Giraffe Got Its Long Neck


 
GiraffeAfrica’s majestically bizarre leaf-eating giraffe once served as an elite status symbol. Even from early civilizations, images of the giraffe are etched and sketched into the rock all over Africa. Puzzling over how the giraffe got its long neck and gentle behavior, the giraffe was the prize of Kings.

In 46 BC, Julius Caesar brought the first giraffe into Europe. Seeming to blend the characteristics of the camel and leopard, the Romans named the giraffe a “cameleopard.” Caesar presented giraffes to lions in Roman arenas to shred and shock audiences.

The first captured African giraffe arrived in China In 1414. To the Chinese Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming dynasty, the giraffe served as a sign of heavenly blessing. Al-Ashraf Qaitbay, the Burji Sultan of Egypt 1487, gifted a giraffe to Lorenzo de’ Medici of Italy.

Charles X, the king of France, was gifted a giraffe by Muhammad Ali of Egypt in 1827. For 18 years, the king proudly showed the giraffe to his guests.

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