The giraffe is an animal with thin legs and a long neck, graceful and very amazing. Its height can sometimes reach more than 5 meters, and this makes it very different from other animals. The giraffe is the tallest animal among land dwellers. Half of a giraffe's total height is just its neck!
The question “Why does a giraffe need legs and a neck so long?” torments people of all ages. But if there were more animals with such a long neck on Earth, the answer to the question would be obvious. Giraffes also have other distinctive features of the body structure, which is not similar to the bodies of other animals. Its neck is formed by a system of seven vertebrae, like those of other animals. But the shape of a giraffe's vertebrae is not like normal ones. They are very elongated in length. It is because of this that the giraffe’s neck is not as flexible as, for example, ours.
You already know that the job of the heart is to provide blood to all the cells of the body. In order for blood to get into the giraffe's brain, it must be raised to a height of more than two meters. Only a big heart can accomplish this task. For this reason, the blood pressure in these animals is almost twice as high as in others.
The giraffe breathes much slower than a human, but this does not prevent it from having incredibly large lungs. Compared to humans, their volume is almost nine times greater than ours. Their purpose is to circulate oxygen through the trachea, which is located in the neck.
You will be surprised, but giraffes sleep standing up. They lay their heads on their backs and fall asleep. But sometimes, if their legs are tired, they may fall asleep on the ground. With this way of sleeping, it is difficult for them to find a comfortable position for their neck. Another amazing fact: giraffe sleep lasts only one hour!
Scientists have proven that the structure of a giraffe's body is directly related to its nutrition. It eats leaves and branches from trees. And since in hot conditions not only the giraffe feeds on plants and grass, its long neck is indispensable for obtaining food. Thus, the giraffe is in more favorable conditions than other inhabitants of arid places.
Acacia is considered the most favorite delicacy of these animals. But its spines are not capable of harming the giraffe, because it has a special structure of the oral cavity. The giraffe loves to eat. This process lasts him more than fifteen hours every day, and all the food can weigh more than 30 kilograms.
But a long neck has not only positive aspects, but also negative ones. For example, to drink liquid, a giraffe needs to spread its legs and bend over to reach the water. In this position, the giraffe becomes very vulnerable, and predators can easily injure or even kill it. For this reason, a giraffe is able to live without water for almost a week, taking liquid from leaves and plants. But when he has the opportunity, he can drink more than 35 liters of water!
Are you wondering why the giraffe's neck became so long? Scientists are sure that this happened during evolution. During drought, animals with long necks had a better chance of survival, which was passed on to their descendants. Then there must be transitional forms between modern giraffes and their ancestors. But, unfortunately, not a single such animal has been found yet.
Biologists are still testing different hypotheses to explain the length of giraffes' necks.
The giraffe neck has intrigued people for a long time. One of the most famous explanations for why giraffes have a long neck was proposed by the outstanding French naturalist and naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck - in his opinion, their necks were stretched from constant efforts to reach the leaves in the treetops.
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace, the founders of evolutionary theory, agreed that it was all about tree leaves, but the personal efforts of giraffes had nothing to do with it. In each generation of animals, due to natural variability, individuals with longer or shorter necks appear, and those with longer necks gain an advantage - they feed better, reaching more leafy branches, and therefore feel better and reproduce better, passing on to the next generation are those variants of “neck” genes, with the help of which the neck becomes longer. This is one of the most famous examples of how natural selection works, and in this form - along with tall trees - giraffes found their way into all textbooks.
But is it only the inaccessible leaves that are the reason? In 1949, Chapman Pincher, a journalist and writer with a passion for zoology and genetics, tried to connect, so to speak, the long necks of giraffes with their long legs. It is quite obvious that it is easier to run away from predators with long legs, but as Pincher suggested, with such legs it is difficult to drink if there is water under your feet (and in nature, no one will bring water to the giraffes’ mouth). This hypothesis gained some popularity, but over time, paleontologists found fossil ancestors of modern giraffes that had long legs and a short neck and that for millions of years did not experience any problems with water.
According to another version, a long neck was primarily needed by male giraffes - a male with a longer neck could more easily defeat his opponent in a fight for a female, or females simply for some reason preferred longer-necked males. In other words, the length of the neck of giraffes was a trait on which sexual selection acted (we will not talk about the features of sexual selection, but we will recommend an excellent article on this subject by Boris Zhukov in Science and Life).
Finally, some experts believe that a long neck protects against overheating. It is known that temperature balance depends on the ratio of the surface of the body to its volume. The larger the surface, the faster the heat leaves; the larger the volume of the body, the more heat is retained in it. For a large animal living in a hot climate, it is important to get rid of excess heat to avoid overheating. It can be assumed that the long neck, together with the long legs of giraffes, increases the surface area of the body relative to the volume, helping them cool. But in order to understand whether this is true or not, you need to accurately measure the giraffe’s surface and giraffe’s volume.
This is exactly what researchers from the University of Pretoria did with several giraffes from Zimbabwe. In an article in Journal of Arid Environments it is said that the body surface of giraffes is, on average, no larger than that of other animals with a similar body mass, so the “fridge neck” hypothesis will apparently have to be discarded.
However, the authors of the work describe another trick that can save giraffes from overheating: by standing with their heads directly towards the sun, they reduce the area of the body illuminated by its rays - the sun simply does not hit the neck. Giraffes indeed often stand this way, but they probably had to look for a less “hot” position after they developed a long neck.
Like humans, giraffes have seven vertebrae in their necks. But, nevertheless, it is much longer than ours. This is explained by the fact that the third cervical vertebra of the animal is almost the same in length as the bone connecting the shoulder and elbow joints of a person. At the same time, its width is almost 9 times smaller.
Giraffes did not immediately get long necks
The elongation of the giraffe's neck occurred gradually, according to a new study published in the Royal Open Science Society. The process took at least two stages. At first, the cervical vertebrae stretched towards the head and only millions of years later - towards the tail.
Why giraffes have such long necks is a question that has been debated by scientists for a long time. According to some assumptions, this makes it easier for animals to obtain food in the form of tall plants. Proponents of a different opinion believe that such a body design may have been formed for a protective function. 
Scientists have identified two periods of animal development
To study exactly how animals acquired this acquisition, a team of scientists led by Melinda Danowitz from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine analyzed 71 vertebrae. Samples from 11 different giraffe species were studied. Among them were the vertebrae of nine extinct and two living groups of animals. These fossil bones have been housed in museums around the world, and some were discovered over a century ago. 
“The most interesting thing is that the length of the neck of a giraffe that lived many years ago does not correspond to the size of the neck of a modern animal,” said one of the co-authors of the study, Nikos Solonias. He also added in his statement: “First, in early species, only the anterior portion of the third vertebra is elongated. Those bones that were a little “younger” turned out to be larger. They have already gone through two stages of their development and have been elongated both towards the head and towards the tail.”
On the other side of the era
The upper end of the vertebra originally stretched about 7 million years ago. This species of animal, called Samotherium, is already extinct. This representative of artiodactyls is the most distant relative of the modern giraffe. The second stage in the development of the animal - elongation of the vertebra in the tail - occurred much later, about 1 million years ago. 
The team also discovered that the most primitive giraffe appeared with a slightly elongated neck. As Danowitz noted, the first signs of vertebral elongation may have appeared as early as 25 million years ago. In this case, it is quite possible to consider the so-called Prodremotherium to be the ancestor of the giraffe.
Giraffes are hard to miss. In zoos or in their natural habitat - Central Africa - they tower above other animals. Still would! After all, the giraffe is the tallest land animal on the planet. The length of the giraffe's neck has puzzled nature researchers for many years. You often hear: “Where do they get such a long neck?”
Looking at how a three-meter (not counting the neck!) animal stretches out its neck, the length of which is 2.5 meters, and then sticks out its tongue, another thirty centimeters long, reaching a seemingly inaccessible acacia branch, you might think that giraffes “grew” themselves such a long neck as a result of long exercises. But is a giraffe really able to somehow influence? Doesn't a change in one trait affect the body as a whole? Let's take a closer look at the giraffe...
The giraffe is a mammal, and therefore its anatomical structure should be similar in many ways to that of other mammals. Like the vast majority of animals, the giraffe has seven cervical vertebrae. What if he didn't have those seven links between his shoulders and the base of his skull? The giraffe's huge head must remain at the top at all times. When a giraffe stands, almost half of its 225-pound neck muscles are in tension. And muscle mass is directly related to the number of joints it needs to support. If, for example, there were only two joints - on the skull and on the chest - the weight of the animal would be much less, and less energy would be required for its life. And if the lack of food resulted in a change in the structure of the neck, then wouldn't this evolutionary process also change the number of cervical vertebrae and joints? Of course, the problem with such a design would be a loss of flexibility and a sharp weakening of resistance when hit on the head or neck.
In contrast, a neck with more joints would require more energy and more muscle mass. This would lead to a forward shift of the giraffe's body's center of gravity; consequently, the head would also stretch forward, and the hind legs would lift off the ground - of course, provided that the front legs were able to withstand this. So seven cervical vertebrae is an excellent design solution.
Because the giraffe's head is so high, its huge heart must be able to pump enough oxygen-rich blood to the brain (to a height of 3 meters). Given the high blood pressure, this could cause serious problems when the giraffe lowers its head (say, at a watering hole), if not for the unique system of arteries with thickened walls, various valves, a network of tiny vessels (rete mirabile - "wonderful network") and receptors , assessing blood pressure. With their help, blood flow in the giraffe's neck is regulated depending on pressure. Even to those who consider this entire system to be merely “an adaptation to high pressure in the blood vessels,” the giraffe seems to be a unique creature.
The giraffe has perhaps the strongest heart in the animal kingdom because it needs blood pressure almost twice as high as normal to move blood up the neck to the brain. With such pressure, only very unusual structural features save the giraffe from hallucinating when it tilts its head at a watering hole.
No less surprising is the fact that the giraffe’s blood does not accumulate in its legs, and the giraffe does not bleed after injuring its leg. The answer to this secret lies in very strong skin and internal ligaments that ensure the integrity of blood vessels and normal blood flow. The structure of giraffe skin has become the subject of intensive study by NASA specialists in connection with the development of new space suits. In addition, all the arteries and veins on the giraffe’s legs are located very deep, and this also prevents bleeding. The capillaries that approach the surface of the skin are very small, and the red blood cells of a giraffe are three times smaller than those of humans; Thanks to this, they pass through narrow capillaries. Obviously, these unique features of the giraffe's anatomy are related to the length of its neck.
But that is not all. Small red blood cells have a relatively large surface area; they absorb oxygen from the lungs better and faster. This helps to effectively supply oxygen to both the limbs and the head.
The lungs, working in harmony with the heart, provide oxygen to the tissues, but the giraffe is unique in this sense. His lungs are eight times larger than those of a human, and his breathing rate is three times less.
Such slow breathing is necessary so that the ribbed four-meter trachea does not become weathered when moving huge masses of air. Why does a giraffe have such big lungs? After inhaling, no animal is physically able to exhale completely. The giraffe's problem is complicated by the fact that the long trachea creates a very large volume of "dead space" air - more than a person can inhale at one time. To compensate for this, you need to increase the volume of your lungs - then the air in the “dead space” will make up a small part of the total air in the respiratory tract. And this physical problem has been successfully solved in the giraffe’s body.
The miracle of the giraffe's birth bears the indelible stamp of intelligent design. A newborn is born falling from a height of one and a half meters, since the mother cannot squat on half-bent legs, and lying on the ground means inevitably becoming the prey of a lion or other predator. Moreover, the cub’s head, like that of other animals, is disproportionately large, which complicates childbirth. But the main thing is that this head is connected to the 70-kilogram body through a fragile long neck. And if a newborn falls head first, then when the body falls from above, the cub will inevitably break its neck; and if his body is forward, then he will still break his neck under the weight of the weight of the body, when it has already come out, but his head has not yet. However, there is a way out of this situation: a newborn giraffe has very narrow hips on the hind legs, and the neck is long enough so that the head runs along the body to the hips. Thus, the hind legs come out first, the newborn rests on them, his head is supported by the hips, and the neck, thanks to its extreme flexibility, remains intact.
Such a miracle becomes possible only with a combination of strictly defined structural features and precisely this length of the neck. A few minutes later the newborn is already standing in a graceful pose between the mother’s legs. In the four years from birth to maturity, the giraffe's neck grows from one-sixth to one-third of the animal's total height. Thanks to this feature, the giraffe quickly gains the ability to lean toward the water while standing on its long legs. In the first year of life, a young giraffe feeds almost exclusively on its mother’s milk, and this is not difficult.
From an ecological point of view, the giraffe fits perfectly into its environment. Fast-growing trees create too much shade and thereby destroy the grass that serves as food for other savanna animals, so such trees need to be “trimmed.” In addition, herbivores need a “sentinel” who can spot silently sneaking predators from the cat family in the tall grass. The giraffe is perfect for this role not only because of its height, but also because of its excellent eyesight and behavioral characteristics. Having warned other animals about the threat with several flicks of its tail, it fearlessly goes out to meet danger. Huge height, tough skin, deadly force of the hind hooves and swift gait make the adult giraffe a very unattractive prey for any predator.
Gould admits with regret that the giraffe's neck is used in almost all textbooks to show the superiority of Darwinism over other theories. It is also found in professional and popular literature. This symbol proved so influential that Hitching titled his critique " Giraffe neck" Gould also conducted a survey of all major high school biology textbooks and found that "in every chapter on evolution, without exception, the discussion begins with Lamarck's theory of the inheritance of acquired characters and then moves on to Darwin's theory of natural selection as the preferred alternative theory." All of the textbooks examined by Gould used the same example to portray the superiority of Darwin's explanation of the giraffe's long neck. Scherr also concluded in his study of giraffe evolution that “science has made the giraffe a real symbol of evolutionary development...”. The whole truth is that this example teaches evolution through a “false theory,” a false symbol.
Gould also discovered that Lamarckism was often used as a preamble to evolution for reasons that were "lost in the mists of time," and since then textbook authors have simply dutifully copied the giraffe neck example used by Lamarck and Darwin. As a result "classical textbooks' depiction of a preference for Darwinian evolution is a well-established and common example based on the supposed influence of a historical tradition that simply does not exist". The giraffe example is also often used to depict the supposed influence of natural selection.
“The giraffe's neck can be used to illustrate how natural selection acts on variation within a population. There is always variability in neck length within any group of giraffes. When there is enough food, animals have no difficulty in feeding on green vegetation. But when there is difficulty with strategic sources, e.g. There is not as much nutritious vegetation as usual; giraffes with longer necks have a clear advantage. They can feed on leaves growing higher. If this nutritional advantage allows long-necked giraffes to survive and produce more offspring compared to short-necked giraffes, the trait will be selected for by natural selection. "Giraffes with long necks are more likely to pass on genetic material to future generations than giraffes with short necks."
The usual explanation for the evolution of the giraffe's neck
According to Lamarck's theory, the evolution of the giraffe's neck occurred as a result of constant stretching gradually lengthening its neck, and then it passed on its preferred long neck to its offspring. However, the textbooks state that scientists now know that acquired traits are not inherited, and give Darwin's explanation of how long it took for the giraffe's neck to evolve. Darwin believed that there was normal variation in neck length, and until giraffes reached their modern heights, evolution continually selected for longer necks (Kottak explains). Giraffes with short necks were less likely to get good food, and conversely, giraffes with long necks got better food. As a result, giraffes with long necks flourished, while giraffes with shorter necks were susceptible to disease, died, or at least had weak offspring. Gould makes the following conclusion about the history presented in textbooks: in the course of evolution, giraffes developed “a long neck for reaching the leaves on the tops of acacia trees. Thus, they gained access to a food source that was not available to other mammals.".
Although the giraffe's neck is a symbol today associated with Lamarck's mechanism of evolution, Gould notes that Lamarck did not offer any proof of his explanation, but only presented his arguments in the form of some thoughts." Lamarck mentions giraffes in just one paragraph, and he does not back up his words with any data at all. According to Gould, the biggest mistake that Lamarck made in his reasoning about the giraffe (Lamarck erroneously argued that during the process of evolution the giraffe's forelimbs became longer than its hind limbs) was that he was not careful while reading the literature."
The giraffe example is often used to explain not only Lamarck's evolution, but also to show that Lamarck's explanation was wrong and Darwin's explanation was correct. The usual textbook says that the giraffe's neck became longer after each generation, not because the animals could reach higher leaves, but because taller giraffes had a selective advantage in being able to reach leaves on taller trees.
Gould says that Darwin used the giraffe's neck as an example of evolution in his work " Origin of species"Only in the 1872 edition. Darwin raised the issue of giraffe evolution in the sixth edition as a response to creationist George Mivart's critical review of his book. It is clear from this work that Darwin never considered the giraffe's long neck to be evidence of the superiority of natural selection (as many biology textbooks and other books dealing with evolution confirm almost without exception).
Textbooks often claim that Lamarck's old theory was refuted and replaced by a new, Darwinian theory, when in fact Darwin accepted many popular ideas that have now been proven wrong.
Textbooks often state that Lamarck's old theory was refuted and replaced by a new, Darwinian theory when in fact, Darwin accepted many popular ideas that have now been proven wrong. The concept of neo-Darwinism appeared after Darwin's death and is used to describe Darwinian theory and replace Lamarck's theory. Textbooks rarely talk about this, and, therefore, readers get the wrong impression about Darwin, and in some places it may even seem that he was some kind of super-genius who knew the answers to all questions (unlike his predecessors, who were often wrong).
Why the giraffe example is used to support Darwinism
The main reason why the giraffe example is used to support evolution is that Darwinism can be effectively portrayed through painting and photography using this compelling, easily explained, and memorable example. Evolutionists offer a simple and easy-to-remember explanation: giraffes with long necks can reach leaves growing on tall acacia trees, so giraffes with long necks are more likely to survive. In almost all textbooks, drawings depict giraffes eating acacia leaves, incorrectly believing that this is their only source of nutrition. According to Simmons and Schieper, “This hypothesis is so attractive that students studying giraffe behavior and evolutionary biologists accept it unconditionally.”.
Most young people consider the giraffe to be the most intriguing and exotic animal. The giraffe is so unusual and unlike other animals that students are usually more interested in this animal than other equally amazing animals. By the way, the word " giraffe" comes from the Arabic word " zerafa"", a phonetic variation of the word " zarafa", which means "charming" or "cute". As one author noted, looking at a giraffe is one of the most enjoyable activities of all people. Unfortunately, the modern habitat of these animals is limited to dry savannas and semi-desert regions of Africa in the south of the Sahara.
The main problem with the giraffe story
However, this outdated evolutionary example runs into big problems. In fact, scientists there is no evidence that the long neck evolved through natural selection due to the animals eating leaves from the tops of acacia trees. We prefer this explanation because it is consistent with the traditional view."
Although the leaves of tall acacia trees are the preferred food source for adults during the rainy season, giraffes can feed on other types of trees and shrubs. Hitching notes that on average, female giraffes are about one meter shorter than male giraffes, and they survive just as well as males. He also claims that the middle layer is equally rich in foliage, and giraffes happily eat low-growing and terrestrial vegetation. In fact, giraffes typically feed on tall grass, low bushes, and many types of ground-growing plants.
Much has been said by evolutionists about the giraffe's neck, which is an advantage for these animals and allows them to reach high leaves - the so-called unexploited niche. However, the very claim that giraffes use an unexploited niche is a false explanation. ad-hoc(i.e. an explanation at random). Gould wonders “If this trait is so useful, why did it not appear in the process of evolution in many other animals (for example, antelopes)? It could just as well be argued that short-necked giraffes had a better chance of surviving because most of the leaves in the part of Africa where they lived are located near the ground, and that is why they would undoubtedly benefit from being closer to the more nutritious ground. vegetation compared to the rare acacia trees. Thus, the ability to reach tall trees is not necessarily a factor that contributes to survival. It is for this reason that Hitching concludes that Darwin's explanation is simple. "a posteriori assumption".
A recent study in which scientists tried to test Darwin's explanation found that during periods when competition for food sources would be greatest (for example, during periods of drought), giraffes tend not to feed on leaves from tall trees, but rather browse from low-lying trees. growing shrubs. Before the giraffe's neck reaches its final length (3-4 years), all young giraffes feed on tall grass and bushes. Females spend more than half their lives nursing their young with their necks positioned horizontally, in which case the length of the neck is a disadvantage for feeding. In the African Serengeti National Park, all giraffes feed on low-lying bushes for almost most of the dry season, and only during the rainy season do they feed on acacia trees, when they have a lot of protein-rich leaves.” The giraffe's menu includes a variety of dishes.
“Giraffes eat what they can pluck. They pluck leaves with their 17-inch tongue or pull up a branch and remove leaves from it with a twist of their head. Giraffes prefer to eat acacia leaves. But these animals' menu includes more than 100 other plant species, including flowers, climbing plants, medicinal herbs, and the occasional nest of weaver birds. If there are chicks in the nest at this moment, giraffes will not refuse to feast on them, thus introducing additional proteins contained in the bones into their diet. Giraffes also obtain minerals from the bones of animals that have been killed and left behind by predators and hyenas."
The fact that both males and females feed most often and fastest with their necks bent downwards indicates (contrary to Darwin's view) that "a long neck did not evolve specifically to enable animals to feed on leaves from tall trees."
Simmons and Scheepers found that in only one area did male giraffes spend most of their time eating leaves from treetops. The fact that both males and females feed most often and fastest with their necks bent downwards indicates (contrary to Darwin's view) that "a long neck did not evolve specifically to enable animals to feed on leaves from tall trees." The authors concluded that "there is weak support for the Darwinian idea of a struggle for food."
And although evolutionist Gould notes that "giraffes tend to eat leaves from the tops of trees", he still admits that the giraffe neck example has no evidence for the superiority of the Darwinian explanation". In addition, we do not know “how and why” the giraffe’s neck lengthened.
Another problem with the history described in most textbooks is that although Darwin believed that the inheritance of acquired characteristics was not as important as natural selection, he still accepted Lamarckism. In other words, Darwin agreed that evolution could occur through the use and disuse of certain body parts.
We don't know where this ubiquitous story about the evolution of the giraffe's neck came from in textbooks. Gould tried to trace it in Henry Firefield Osborne's book Origin and evolution of life" Osborne's inaccurate description assures us that Lamarck believed that the elongation of the giraffe's neck was the result of the inheritance of changes in the body due to the extension of the neck behind the leaves, and Darwin explained the elongation of the neck by the constant selection of individuals and species that were born with the longest necks. Osborne concluded that "Darwin was probably right."
Lamarck's view that the giraffe's stretching of its neck to reach leaves resulted in a longer neck is challenged by the example of the okapi (an animal that closely resembles a giraffe, except that its neck is slightly longer than a horse's). Okapi, like the giraffe, extends its neck to reach food sources, but its neck is no different from fossils of its species in the fossil record. According to Whitfield, this suggests that evolution does not follow a simple pattern of use and disuse." The okapi example also refutes the mutation and natural selection scenario. Okapi's diet is limited to low-growing tree species, and any mutation that elongated its neck (to be like a giraffe) would have contributed to its increased likelihood of survival, since it would only be able to feed on the leaves of high and low-growing trees.
Another problem with Darwinian history in textbooks
Other evolutionists believe that the giraffe's neck might as well have evolved not so that they could get food, but for completely different reasons. There is a common belief that the long neck evolved to facilitate mating. Gould concludes that the main adaptive reason for the evolution of a long neck may have been success with the opposite sex, with "leaf plucking being a secondary outcome." Scher states that the longer the neck, the better the males can perform their ritualistic leader encounters called "cuddling." The theory that the giraffe's unusually long neck resulted from its use in competition for mates implies that cuddling evolved first, and then, through selection, a long neck evolved.
Apart from the lack of any evidence for the above theory, another problem is that giraffes with short necks would not be able to use them as clubs, meaning cuddling would be completely ineffective until giraffes developed long necks. How could cuddling evolve before the long necks giraffes use to cuddle? They may have used headbutts (as male deer do) before they evolved long necks. The problem with this theory is that a long neck would interfere with giraffes who banged their heads (they needed short necks), and nature would have "selected" this feature as very inconvenient.
Moreover, the hypothesis based on the hugging ritual does not explain the presence of long legs in giraffes. Different animals have different rituals, and the evolutionary development of a long neck involves anatomical and biological challenges that must be overcome (some of which are discussed below). According to Occam's scientific principle, giraffes would have benefited greatly if they had evolved a similar (rather than three-meter) neck like other animals for a more functional mating ritual.
According to some evolutionists, the giraffe's long neck evolved as a tower to watch for possible predators. The long neck, combined with good eyesight, allows the giraffe to see a lion several miles away. The theory that the giraffe's neck evolved to help it see enemies is plausible, but the giraffe has virtually no enemies. The only animal capable of attacking a giraffe is a lion, and only when it is driven to despair. According to Hitching, for a 900-pound giraffe that can kill a lion with its hooves in the blink of an eye. Lions can kill baby giraffes, and giraffes are especially vulnerable when they spread their legs apart and lean low to the ground when eating or drinking. In fact, a giraffe's best defense is not its neck, as is commonly believed, but its long legs and heavy hooves, which can deliver a fatal blow to an enemy. It is with the help of blows with their hooves that giraffes protect themselves from predators. However, all this is suitable to explain the supposed evolution of the giraffe's long legs, and not its long neck.
Giraffes defend themselves by beating off enemies with their hooves. Great hooves can kill a lion in the blink of an eye. Adult giraffes are vulnerable when they eat or drink low to the ground. The ability to kick with hooves is ineffective when giraffes occupy a precarious position low to the ground.
In Gary Larson's popular cartoon, the giraffe's evolution is depicted as the gradual elongation of its legs and neck. This funny parody was actually proposed by several researchers. They believe that legs evolved first to allow giraffes to quickly run away from carnivores, and then necks evolved so that giraffes could stretch above the ground and eat tall grass and drink water.
However, this scenario also poses problems. Long legs do not necessarily give a giraffe an advantage in escaping predators. By the way, many of the fastest animals survive thanks to legs that are much shorter than the legs of a modern giraffe.
The giraffe's long neck plays another important role: it helps it rise from a lying position (giraffes use their neck to bear their weight and stand up on their long legs). A long neck is also important when running (the serpentine, slithering motion that propels the giraffe's body forward beautifully and rhythmically). Thanks to its long, thin neck, the giraffe has a large body surface area, which allows for efficient cooling. That is why, unlike many other mammals that live in areas of high temperature, giraffes are able to stay in the sun for a long time. All of this (or none of this) may have contributed to the selection for the giraffe's long neck. Since it could equally be argued that the giraffe's long neck evolved to facilitate mating, for protection from enemies, for thermoregulation, for rapid movement (up to 50 km/h), or for any other reason, this symbol of Darwinism seems weak and unconvincing. You could come up with a whole list of characteristics that are most important for a giraffe (which is probably why scientists chose the nutrition scenario), but all the properties of the giraffe are inseparable and point to its Creation.
While other hypotheses have been proposed by scientists to explain the giraffe's unusual morphology through natural selection (which we cannot discuss in this article due to space limitations), suffice it to say that all of them are imprecise and problematic. As Gould noted, "a giraffe's neck cannot be evidence any scenario adaptation implied by Darwinism or any other theory"(emphasis added). In fact, the giraffe's neck is a remarkable example that points to many of the problems associated with Darwinism.
Is there fossil evidence that the giraffe did not evolve?
There is much debate surrounding the evolution of the giraffe, partly due to a lack of empirical evidence. Consequently, scientists feel completely free to make assumptions without any evidentiary restrictions. As a result, they tried to combine the giraffe with animals that are actually very different from it. Today there are about ten species of giraffes ( Giraffa camelopardalis). If the fossil remains of giraffes found in huge quantities differ, it is only in size and shape. Fossils confirm that giraffes remained unchanged for "two million years" (according to uniformitarian dating methods). Moreover, existing fossil evidence "does not provide any information about how the modern giraffe with its long neck arose".
Like the vast majority of mammals, the giraffe has seven cervical vertebrae and almost as many leg bones, except that the giraffe's bones and vertebrae are more elongated. If the giraffe had elongated its neck and legs, this would be reflected in fossil bones, but no such bones have been found to support their evolution. Savage and Long concluded that the origins of all three major lineages of higher ruminants (giraffe, deer and cow) remain unclear due to a huge gap in the fossil record. There is an opinion that at the beginning of the Pleistocene, giraffes inhabited vast territories of Eurasia and Africa, and, therefore, a huge number of fossil remains should be found in this territory.
Some evolutionists believe that the lack of evidence for the evolution of giraffes is a consequence of the lack of active search for giraffe fossils. Creationists, on the contrary, claim that paleontologists, who have extracted millions of fossils from the depths of the earth, have not found evidence of transitional stages in the elongation of the giraffe's neck because these stages simply do not exist.
One hypothesis put forward by Darwinists is that the ancestor of giraffes was an elk-sized animal called Paleotragus, which was discovered near Athens. This conclusion is based solely on the fact that the closest animal to the giraffe in the fossil record is Paleotragus.
Paleotragus was previously thought to be an early giraffid, and many paleontologists believe it left behind two sets of ancestors in the Pleistocene.
These ancestors include Sivatheria, which are bulky animals (the size of an elephant) that once roamed the vast expanses of not only Africa, but also India. Sivatheria had a short neck and curled horns known as horns (fingered or flat structures resembling stag antlers, very different from the horns of modern giraffes). The length of many Sivatherian bones was almost half the length of the bones of modern giraffes, and there were many other differences between the two taxa.
It is believed that the primitive giraffe was a fast and agile animal, similar to the modern forest dweller, okapi (a large artiodactyl animal with a height at the withers of 160 cm). The only representative of the giraffidae that has survived to this day, besides the giraffe itself, is the rarely seen okapi. It lives only in the deep tropical forests of central Africa. It has a long neck, long front legs and many other external features that resemble a deer. Scientists believe that okapi is very similar to the extinct Paleotragus. The existence of okapi was confirmed in 1901. Scientists then declared that it was “the last and only large mammal to escape the watchful eye of science until the early twentieth century” (a claim that has since been refuted many times).
Although Paleotragus was considered the first giraffe, fossil evidence indicates that it was an okapi-type animal. So, fossils point to animals virtually identical to modern okapi, and giraffes supposedly evolved from ancient okapi, despite the complete lack of fossil evidence for this theory. The evidence provides much better support for the theory that Paleotragus was in fact an okapi, present unchanged in the fossil record. Giraffes belong to the artiodactyls (the order Artiodactyls includes animals with two or four toes and the axis of the leg between the third and fourth toes). Artiodactyls include: deer, antelope, pronghorn antelope, cattle (bovids), sheep and goats, as well as okapi, which belong to the giraffe family.
Other animals believed to be the predecessors of giraffes are Samotherium. They were somewhat similar to deer, but larger in size and with a more elongated neck. There is a theory that giraffes may have evolved from prehistoric deer, which had a side toe, and are part of the superfamily Deer. Scientists have put forward a hypothesis: since giraffes lack a side finger, it must have been lost during evolution.
The giraffe is the only representative of its genus (Giraffidae) and there is no evidence to indicate that an animal similar to it has ever existed in history.
The giraffe is the only representative of its genus (Giraffidae) and there is no evidence to indicate that an animal similar to it has ever existed in history. Likewise, there is no fossil evidence for the evolution of the okapi, often called a living fossil due to its “virtually unchanged over 15 million years of living in its isolated refuge with primitive external conditions”. The main problem is that, despite the abundance of fossil remains, the record does not support any of the many evolutionary assumptions that exist.
Does molecular biology support giraffe evolution?
Data from genetic studies have not confirmed the correctness of Darwin's point of view. In a study of 27 species, including bovids and giraffes, the results were "far from uniform". A study of chromosomes showed that the pronghorn antelope family was most similar to giraffes in terms of karyotype, and that giraffes differ in many ways from other artiodactyls, for example, they have more double-armed autosomes.”
Giraffe Supports Creation Theory
The problem for evolution is that the giraffe's entire body (both physiological and anatomical features) works as a single functional unit. In fact, the giraffe is a wonderful symbol of intelligent design, since the incredible complexity of the animal's body requires all its parts to be present from the very beginning. All of these parts must have already been working before the neck structure came into existence and began to function. Darwin himself said of the giraffe: "It is a beautiful animal, having a wonderfully consistent structure of the neck." Evolutionists typically explain that the giraffe's long neck did not result from Lamarckian evolution, but from "an error or mutation that worked out remarkably well." In fact, to produce a long neck would require hundreds or thousands of simultaneous (or nearly simultaneous) mutations—a sequence of events whose probability is essentially zero.
The problem for evolution is that the giraffe's entire body (both physiological and anatomical features) works as a single functional unit.
Giraffe anatomy poses another big challenge for evolution. According to Gould, "a long neck must be associated with changes in almost every part of the giraffe's body: long legs to enhance the effect of a long neck, and many other supporting structures (bones, muscles and ligaments) all to support the neck". In order to reach tall trees, giraffes need not only a long neck, but also long legs. They also need an elongated snout and a long tongue to reach the high-growing acacia leaves. How could natural selection simultaneously change the neck, legs, tongue, lips, knee joints, muscles and the circulatory system (necessary to push blood from the heart to the distant brain)? This remains a mystery to Darwinists.
Giraffes, the tallest animals on the planet, can reach a height of 5 meters to the top of their heads. When giraffes feed on the ground, they are forced to lower their head 2 m below their heart, and when they rise, their head is 3.3 m above their heart. While plucking grass and drinking water, blood suddenly rushes to the giraffe’s brain and leaves it just as abruptly. This huge problem was solved with a complex and unique valve system. The giraffe's strong heart beats at 150 beats per minute. A porous tissue substance located under the brain helps regulate blood flow so that sudden changes in blood flow and flow are blunted.
How could natural selection simultaneously change the neck, legs, tongue, lips, knee joints, muscles and the circulatory system (necessary to push blood from the heart to the distant brain)?
According to Gould, the assumption that all the important parts of the giraffe's body changed all at once makes natural selection ineffective as a creative force because in such a case adaptation would also have to appear simultaneously, as a random consequence of internally generated variability. Darwin's proposed solution was that all these characteristics should not have evolved at the same frequency. In other words, if the neck lengthens a few inches at a time, then the mass of necessary supporting structures also evolves accordingly with the neck and gives an animal with a slightly longer neck a slight advantage if, for example, it already has a large heart.
In theory, this process would create the possibility of multi-stage evolution. Gould calls this "suggestive biology," but in reality it is conjecture based on the unsupported assumption that the neck evolved slowly. The problem with this assumption is that not only quantitative but also qualitative changes are needed to create a completely new neck and blood vessel structure, and the assumption of qualitative changes creates problems. Such assumptions are only permissible on the basis of the assumption that the evolution of the neck and legs turned a deer-like animal into a giraffe, and this assumption has no basis.
Some new attempts to solve the question of the evolution of the giraffe's long neck are even worse than the old incorrect explanations. For example, in response to the question, “How does a giraffe have a long neck?”, Kuttner stated: Giraffes have a long neck not because he stretched to reach high-lying leaves. Giraffes have long necks because they mated with long-necked prototypes and therefore outlived animals with short necks. This is an example of the theory of natural selection proposed by Darwin. But the question again arises: “Where did the hypothetical prototypes come from and why? They evolved?"
Conclusion
The giraffe is used by evolutionists as a classic example of exceptional morphological adaptation to environmental conditions. The giraffe is often portrayed in textbooks as the prime example of natural selection. Most biologists since Darwin have explained the giraffe's neck length (in an evolutionary context) as the result of a struggle for survival with other leaf- and shoot-eating mammals. In fact, this example of evolution is not based on data, but rather on abstract conclusions that turned out to be inaccurate. The giraffe is just one of many symbols of evolution that, while seemingly convincing and used to promote evolution, turn out to be false.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that we agree with Gould that “the standard story about the evolution of the giraffe is in fact stupid and unfounded,” and that “in the world of giraffes, the use of growth to pluck acacia trees does not prove the evolution of the neck for this function.” According to Gould, there are several scenarios that explain the giraffe's long neck. In fact, there is no scientific evidence for any of his naturalistic explanations, nor is there any reason to prefer one plausible naturalistic explanation over another. All explanations are attempts to explain existing things by inventing fairy tales (in Gould’s own words).
As Hitching notes, "the evolution of the giraffe, the world's tallest animal, is often presented as a classic case in which Darwin was right and Lamarck was wrong," but the giraffe study provides no clue at all about how the giraffe's apparently advantageous neck evolved " As a Darwinian, he is concerned that the giraffe's neck is being used as an example to support evolution. He notes: “If we continue to portray our beliefs (i.e. Darwinian evolution) with an unprovable, baseless, completely speculative, and essentially stupid story, we evolutionists are in trouble.”. Biology, and especially molecular biology, clearly indicates that evolutionists are already in trouble."
Gould expresses his concern about this situation: “If we choose a weak and stupid hypothesis as the main illustration in textbooks (falsely believing that this fiction has historical authority and is supported by data), we thereby get ourselves into trouble. Critics are just waiting to catch us being weak, and then assume that if the theory's proponents present such a stupid example as an illustration, their whole theory is probably under attack.".
Critics have discovered not only this, but also many other weak links in Darwinism.
Special thanks to Wayne Frere, Brt Thompson and John Woodmorupp for their assistance in producing this article.
Links and notes
- Wells D., " Evolution icons", Regnery Publishing, Washington (DC), 2001. Also see Truman, R., What biology textbooks hide about evolution: a review of Wells, D., " Icons of evolution: science or myth? Why Most of What We Know About Evolution Isn't True", TJ magazine 15 (2):17-24, 2001.
