Giraffes split into 6 different species

[alecstilleyedye]

i think this thread is a throwback…

 

[TheDoctor]

Before we start - giraffes have livers, and they don't drink alcohol. And I'm pretty sure they don't shag zebras (or donkeys, for that matter).

Maybe if they did drink alcohol they would shag zebras. That's going to be my excuse anyway.

*goes to Whipsnade with bucket of oats and stepladder*

 

[Arch]

How do you know it wasn't the giraffe that evolved the 'tall tree' rather than the other way round? I don't need proof.

There is an alternative theory about why giraffes are the way they are:

If you are a prey animal, you need to be able to run fast (unless you have taken the line of being poisonous, or spiny or too huge to tackle or something). The best way to run fast is to have long legs, so as to cover more ground per stride. The giraffe has taken long legs to the extreme, and an adult can pretty much outrun anything, over a sustained distance (a cheetah may be faster, but can't keep going long). The long neck may be purely so that the giraffe can still reach to the ground to drink (or for the baby, reach the mother to suckle). The ability to exploit the leaves at the top of trees might just be a secondary advantage.

As for being one trick ponies, well, that's just one of the ways evolution takes you - either you become very specialized, or you become a generalist. Specialism works very well, unless your specific cirumstances change - in which case the generalists have the upper hand. On the whole, ecosystems tend to balance out and stay the same, so a specialist can do very well until something upsets the balance.

Giraffes are one of those animals I'd really like to see in the wild. They are just so odd looking....

And yes, they can run, they gallop just like a camel or horse, and they don't so much hide as blend in...

 

[TheDoctor]

@ Arch
Can I advise a trip to South Africa at some point? We saw giraffes, lions, rhinos, zebras, crocodiles and the very young form of a large grey animal whose name escapes me at the moment.

 

[Arch]

@ Arch
Can I advise a trip to South Africa at some point? We saw giraffes, lions, rhinos, zebras, crocodiles and the very young form of a large grey animal whose name escapes me at the moment.

Oh yes, I know, I know... My "ecofriendly low carbon" soul wrestles with my "I wanna" mind. The stay at home option being helped at the moment by my "completely empty" wallet.

 

[abchandler]

you needn't come the "they've always been like that, they've only just discovered it", '

Fro the article:
The study also found that the two giraffe subspecies that live closest to each other - the reticulated giraffe (Currently: Giraffa camelopardalis reticulate) in North Kenya, which has reddish round spots; and the Maasai giraffe (Currently: Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) in South Kenya - separated 0.5 to 1.5 million years ago.

So they haven't always been like that, just for half a million years or so

 

[simon l& and a half]

Giraffes, evolution... I'm with Lamarck. Bollocks to the evidence.

I'm with Lysenko. If ever there was a species that had responded to greater fertiliser inputs the giraffe is it.

 

[TheDoctor]

Oh yes, I know, I know... My "ecofriendly low carbon" soul wrestles with my "I wanna" mind. The stay at home option being helped at the moment by my "completely empty" wallet.

That's why we need the train tunnel to Africa. It'd be the mother of all TGV lines though.
*thinks*
*works numbers out*
With TGV track all the way, you could probably do London - Johannesburg in about 36 hours, or about 3 times longer then flying. That's based on TGVs doing just under 200 mph (which they do) and 747s doing about 580 mph. It's a goer.

*gets spade and orders 14 000 000 skips.*

 

[bonj2]

Oh yes, I know, I know... My "ecofriendly low carbon" soul wrestles with my "I wanna" mind. The stay at home option being helped at the moment by my "completely empty" wallet.

you haven't got a car, so you'll still be less than average. So go.

 

[Arch]

you haven't got a car, so you'll still be less than average. So go.

Thankyou.... Care to stump up my airfare?

Doctor, I like your thinking. Are you planning to tunnel just to Morroco and then go overland? I fear border disputes and bureaucracy might add to the journey time. Otherwise, it's a tunnel all the way to Jo'burg... Still you might hit a diamond or gold seam along the way, which might help pay for the venture....

 

[domtyler]

That's why we need the train tunnel to Africa. It'd be the mother of all TGV lines though.
*thinks*
*works numbers out*
With TGV track all the way, you could probably do London - Johannesburg in about 36 hours, or about 3 times longer then flying. That's based on TGVs doing just under 200 mph (which they do) and 747s doing about 580 mph. It's a goer.

*gets spade and orders 14 000 000 skips.*

Tardis broke?

 

[TheDoctor]

Thankyou.... Care to stump up my airfare?

Doctor, I like your thinking. Are you planning to tunnel just to Morroco and then go overland? I fear border disputes and bureaucracy might add to the journey time. Otherwise, it's a tunnel all the way to Jo'burg... Still you might hit a diamond or gold seam along the way, which might help pay for the venture....

I guess the Gibraltar route would be easiest (although I'd dearly like to see a suspension or cable stayed bridge...) but as for the rest I clearly haven't thought it through. Finding a gold seam would be good.
I'll stump up a tenner if you like? Get enough other people to do it and you're sorted.

 

[simonali]

1. giraffe
2. slightly longer eared giraffe
3. chubby giraffe...

...don't know the others.

 

[Brock]

4. dwarf girarf...?

 

[Foghat]

I see bonj's strait-jacket is having another day off.