Fossil bones from extinct cousin reveal how giraffe got its long neck
Analysis of the neck bones of an extinct member of the giraffe family reveal how today's giraffe got its exceptionally long neck. In a paper published in Royal Society Open Science, scientists describe the neck of a "transitional" or "intermediate" species that existed about 7 million years ago. The findings, by researchers at the New York Institute of Technology, are based on analysis of fossil vertebrae of Samotherium major, a giraffid that roamed parts of Eurasia, including Samos of Greece (where it was originally found and named), South Italy, Turkey, Moldavia, Iran, and China.
