A new finding lends credence to the idea that “necking”—male giraffes clubbing each other with their necks and shoulders in ritual combat while fighting over mates—may be the main or at least contributing force behind the giraffe’s long-necked evolution.
The origin behind giraffes’ long necks has long fascinated scientists. For more than a century, the going theory was that it was due to evolutionary pressure to reach leaves and other foliage to eat. However, it turns out, it might be due to a more X-rated reason: sex., researchers in China have discovered fossils of a new giraffe species dating back 17 million years ago.
A large part of why the “necks for food” evolutionary theory has prevailed is in no small part to Charles Darwin. The English naturalist was the first to propose that the spotty giraffe developed itsneck through successive generations reaching for foliage just out of reach. For many years, this theory was accepted and the giraffe’s neck became a textbook case for natural selection.
“The peculiar head-neck morphology was most probably adapted for a fierce intermale headbutting behavior, comparable to neck-blowing in male giraffes but indicative of an extreme adaptation in a different direction within giraffoids,” the authors wrote in their paper.tooth enamel had the second-highest average of carbon-13, a radioactive form of carbon used for dating, compared to all herbivores existing alongside it.
These new fossil records paint a better picture of what early giraffes roaming the ancient world looked like and how their behaviors and environment may have shaped their modern physiology. While it’s still yet to be seen whether these fossils outright dismiss the “necks for food” evolutionary theory, it definitely makes you consider these magnificent, gentle-seeming animals in a pugilistic new light.
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