Generations of students have learned it this way in biology class: giraffes’ long necks would have enabled them to nibble on the tallest leaves from trees. Now there are increasing indications that it may be different. A team led by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences backs the thesis in the journal “Science” with new evidence That the long neck offers advantages in the fight for his colleagues.
The group studied the fossilized remains of the extinct relatives of the giraffe, believed to have lived in northern China 17 million years ago. Using 77 fossils, paleontologists have reconstructed that animals once had a massive skull and helmet-like headdress. Combined with special vertebrae and joints in the neck and neck, this is said to have helped the animals beat their heads against each other in combat.
Researchers have debated why giraffes have long necks for decades. Both the hypothesis that the neck confers nutritional advantages and the thesis conferring sexual advantages Leave questions unanswered. The foraging hypothesis does not explain why giraffes have remained much larger than their competitors for more than a million years. On the other hand, proponents of the reproductive hypothesis have to find a reason for females to have long necks. The authors of the current study suspect that sexual advantage was the driving force behind the development of the giraffe’s long neck, while foraging advantage was just a welcome side effect.
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