Darwin was wrong about the height of giraffes

 

Image courtesy of Emma Wells, fair use doctrine.

Joel Kontinen 

The okapi is a living fossil that defies Darwinism.

However, the discovery of two full grown giraffes could make them want to defy evolution as well. The specimens ae 2,7 metres or 9 feet tall, these two dwarf giraffes are about half the height of the average giraffe.

Adorable dwarf giraffes have been spotted for the first time, and with their graceful long necks tacked onto a set of chunky legs, they look like a mashup of mythical creatures. Researchers identified two wild giraffes that were around 9 feet (2.7 meters) tall — about half the height of the average giraffe. That diminutive stature could put them at a disadvantage in the wild, experts say. 

One giraffe, dubbed "Gimli," after the trusty dwarf sidekick in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, was first spotted in 2015 in Uganda's Murchison Falls National Park, according to The New York Times. The researchers were baffled when they first saw the 2.8 m or 9-foot-4-inch-tall giraffe.

"The initial reaction was disbelief," study lead author doctor Michael Brown, a conservation science fellow with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, told the Times. 

The giraffe's legs were unusually short, which made it look as though someone had stuck a giraffe's head on a horse's body, the Times reported.

In 2018, the researchers observed an 8-foot-6-inch-tall (2.6 m) giraffe, nicknamed "Nigel," on a private farm in central Namibia, according to a new study on the encounters, published Dec. 30 in the journal BMC Research Notes.

In addition to humans, dwarfism or skeletal dysplasia, affects bone growth, often resulting in short stature. although it has been known to occur in humans and domestic animals like dogs, cows and pigs, dwarfism is rarely observed among wild animals and this is the first time it has been found in giraffes. has Gimli and Nigel are the first reported giraffes with the condition.

Source:


Rettner, Rachael, 2021. Adorable dwarf giraffes spotted for the first time, Live Science 8 January