Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a recent common ancestor with deer and bovids.This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (between one and eight, usually four, species of Giraffa, depending on taxonomic interpretation) and the okapi (the only known species of Okapia).
The giraffe is one of only two living genera of the family Giraffidae in the order Artiodactyla, the other being the okapi. [6] They are ruminants of the clade Pecora , along with Antilocapridae ( pronghorns ), Cervidae (deer), Bovidae (cattle, antelope, goats and sheep) and Moschidae (musk deer).
Often mistaken with the southern giraffe, the northern giraffe differs by the shape and size of the two distinctive horn-like protuberances known as ossicones on its forehead; they are longer and larger than those of southern giraffe. Male northern giraffes have a third cylindrical ossicone in the center of the head just above the eyes, ranging ...
This prehistoric even-toed ungulate -related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
South African giraffe (G. g. giraffa), also known as Cape giraffe Is found in northern South Africa , southern Botswana, southern Zimbabwe, Eswatini and south-western Mozambique . It has dark, somewhat rounded patches "with some fine projections" on a tawny background colour.
Giraffoidea is a superfamily that includes the families Climacoceratidae, Prolibytheriidae, and Giraffidae.The only extant members in the superfamily are the giraffes and okapi.
The family Raoellidae is said to be the closest artiodactyl family to the cetaceans. [42] [43] Consequentially, new theories in cetacean evolution hypothesize that whales and their ancestors escaped predation, not competition, by slowly adapting to the ocean. [44] [45] [46]
However, recent genetic research has shown that the populations from northern Cameroon and southern Chad actually are the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum). [5] Therefore, the giraffes that remain in Waza National Park (Cameroon) belong to the Kordofan giraffe, while the only remaining viable population of the West African giraffe is in Niger ...