Why Giraffes Have Long Necks: Researchers Find Clues

A recent study revealed the giraffe's long neck evolved through several stages, as one of its neck bones stretched from its head and then to its tail a few million years later, according to a news release.

Giraffes have long necks - which enables them to find more vegetation or develop specialized methods of fighting, which are common theories from scientists. However, in a recent study, researchers examined a fossil cervical vertebrae (the neck bone), and for the first time scientists were able to tell the specifics of the evolutionary transformation in extinct species within the giraffe family.

The lengthening process was not consistent with all giraffes, according to giraffe anatomy expert and paleontologist Nikos Solounias, from NYIT College of Osteopathic Medicine. In one species of giraffe, only the front portion of the vertebrae had lengthened, while the second stage was the lengthening of the back portion of the neck vertebrae.

"The modern giraffe is the only species that underwent both stages, which is why it has a remarkably long neck," said Solounias.

Solounias, along with Melinda Danowitz, from the school's Academic Medicine Scholars program, studied 71 fossils of nine extinct and two living species in the giraffe family. These bones were retrieved during the 1800s and early 1900s and were placed in museums in in Austria, Germany, Sweden, England, Greece and Kenya.

"We also found that the most primitive giraffe already started off with a slightly elongated neck. The lengthening started before the giraffe family was even created 16 million years ago," said Danowitz.

They found that the stretching of the vertebrae had started around 7 million years ago in the Samotherium, a short necked giraffe, which is an extinct species of the giraffe family. The researchers found that as the modern day giraffe's neck was getting longer, the neck of species of the giraffe was getting shorter.

The okapi is the only other living member of the giraffe family, which is found in central Africa. This species is one of four with a "secondarily shortened neck" placing it on a different evolutionary pathway, according to Danowitz.

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