amnhnyc:

🦒How did the giraffe’s long neck evolve?

🔬New research co-authored by Jin Meng, a curator in the Museum’s Division of Paleontology, complicates previous theories. In the past, many agreed that the giraffe evolved its long neck to reach foliage and outcompete others in the search for food. In 1996, a set of researchers offered a “necks-for-sex” hypothesis, suggesting sexual selection driven by intermale competition may have also contributed to neck evolution. Now, newly described 17-million-year-old fossils from a new species of Miocene giraffoid named Discokeryx xiezh are offering new evidence about why giraffes have long necks.

📑Read more about Discokeryx xiezhi and the findings, recently published in the journal Science, in the link in our bio.

#giraffes #AnimalFacts #paleontology #research #NewResearch #amnh #dyk #nature #NaturalHistory
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