Darwin and Evolution

[eroticartist]

Please read and discuss...

Thanks,
Mike.

[JamesW]

You wonder why short-necked giraffes just didn?t eat grass that was abundant in the plains of Africa? The answer is that yes they did eat vegetation on the ground - usually. This would however have been much more difficult in times of drought, when having a longer neck would have been advantageous. In times of drought competition with other animals for vegetation on the ground would have been fierce.

It's also worth noting that giraffes are hard to stalk by predators because their long necks effectively act as a watch tower, so for a giraffe to have a longer neck would be an advantage in this way too. Even if giraffes are attacked those with longer necks still have an advantage, as they can use the horns on their head whilst keeping their body at a greater distance and more easily avoid bodily injury.

[Lizard]

You should know that darwin was pissed when he wrote that theory .

[eroticartist]

So why are there no skeletal remains of short necked giraffes?

[eroticartist]

!shocked!

[JamesW]

eroticartist wrote:

> So why are there no skeletal remains of short necked giraffes?


There are plenty.

The main short necked giraffes of which we have fossils include the following:

* Climacoceras (very earliest Miocene);
* Canthumeryx (also very early Miocene);
* Paleomeryx (early Miocene);
* Palaeotragus (early Miocene);
* Giraffokeryx (mid to late Miocene);
* Bramatherium (mid to late Miocene);
* Samotherium (late Miocene);
* Okapia (the genus that includes the okapi, a living short-necked giraffe);
* Giraffa (Pliocene, the genus that includes the modern giraffe).

I should emphasise that these are just the fossil genera - meaning that each of the above is a genus which includes many species.

[JamesW]

Further on this subject, it would be worthwhile to directly compare some of these short necked giraffes, such as the Climacoceras, the Palaeotragus, the Samotherium and the Giraffa jumae. Because by making a direct comparison of these fossils you can see the gradual increase in the number of vertebrae and hence the length of the neck.

[andy at handiwork]

Not exactly news saying that Darwin's masterwork has been mis-interpreted and mis-used by the unscrupulous over the years is it?

[andy at handiwork]

Phew. There's someone who knows his stuff. Well done.

[eroticartist]

So you are saying that short necked giraffes definitely existed?