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How Do Giraffes Drink Water Through Those Long Necks? Giraffe necks are so long they can’t reach the ground. To get a sip of water from a water hole, a giraffe will splay its legs in an awkward ...
A Penn State researcher has been trying to get to the bottom of the age-old question of why giraffes have long necks. Skip to main content. 24/7 Help. For premium support please call: 800-290 ...
[64] [65] However, scientists disagree about just how much time giraffes spend feeding at levels beyond the reach of other browsers, [10] [57] [63] [66] and a 2010 study found that adult giraffes with longer necks actually suffered higher mortality rates under drought conditions than their shorter-necked counterparts. This study suggests that ...
Giraffes gain their long necks by a different heterochrony, extending the development of their cervical vertebrae; they retain the usual mammalian number of these vertebrae, seven. [1] This number appears to be constrained by the use of neck somites to form the mammalian diaphragm muscle; the result is that the embryonic neck is divided into ...
Gemina lived an almost-normal life for a zoo giraffe, [2] except that she had to be fed separately; her keepers noted that her tongue was shorter than those of the other giraffes, and she did not have peripheral vision to the same extent that normal giraffes do.
Two giraffes. The giraffe stands 5–6 m (16–20 ft) tall, with males taller than females. The giraffe and the okapi have characteristic long necks and long legs. Ossicones are present on males and females in the giraffe, but only on males in the okapi. [6] Giraffids share many common features with other ruminants.
In okapi, the male's ossicones are smaller in proportion to the head, and taper towards their tips, forming a sharper point than the comparatively blunt giraffe ossicone. Whereas female giraffes have reduced ossicones, female okapi lack ossicones entirely. The morphology of ossicones in the extinct relatives of giraffes and okapi varies widely.
The Masai giraffe's most famous feature, its neck, contains seven vertebrae and makes up roughly one third of its body height. Its long and muscular tongue, which can be up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) in length, is prehensile and allows it to grab leaves from tall trees that are inaccessible to other animals.