How the giraffe got its long neck The giraffe’s journey to long-necked wonder began more than 20 million years ago, a new study finds. praetoriansentry /Flickr ( CC-BY 2.0 ) ...

A strange early relative of the giraffe was perfectly adapted for headbutting 17 million years ago – and an unusual fossil discovery reveals why giraffes adapted to grow such a long neck.

Richard du Toit/Corbis. How the giraffe got its neck is a question people have asked for centuries, both in science labs and ancient myths. Now, thanks to a study of fossils from giraffe ancestors ...

They analyzed the neck bones of four S. majorindividuals, three giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis) and three okapis (O. johnstoni). On average, giraffes had 6.5-foot-long (2 meters) necks .

Video summary. An animation describing how and why giraffes have developed such long necks. Sam, a young tortoise, wishes he had a longer neck to reach the nicest leaves.

Because while Darwin was able to explain how the giraffe’s long neck evolved, the question of why has proved to be much more complicated than we thought. See, in 1996, ...