Giraffidae Fossil range: Early Miocene - Recent
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Artiodactyla Family: Giraffidae Gray, 1821
Species
Okapia Okapia johnstoni Giraffa Giraffa camelopardalis

The giraffids are ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids. The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23 Chordates ( Phylum Chordata) are a group of Animals that includes the Vertebrates together with several closely related Invertebrates Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands The even-toed ungulates form the Mammal order Artiodactyla. They are Ungulates whose weight is borne (if they have more than two toes about John Edward Gray ( 12 February 1800 &ndash 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. The Okapi ( Okapia johnstoni) is a Mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo The Okapi ( Okapia johnstoni) is a Mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo The giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African Even-toed ungulate Mammal, the tallest of all land-living Animal Species The giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African Even-toed ungulate Mammal, the tallest of all land-living Animal Species Physiologically a ruminant is a Mammal of the order Artiodactyla that digests plant-based food by initially softening it within the animal's first stomach known The even-toed ungulates form the Mammal order Artiodactyla. They are Ungulates whose weight is borne (if they have more than two toes about A deer is a Ruminant Mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. A bovid is any of almost 140 species of Cloven-hoofed Mammals belonging to the family Bovidae. The biological family Giraffidae, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, contains only two living members, the giraffe and the okapi. In Biological classification, family ( Latin For the superstate in George Orwell 's novel see Nations of Nineteen Eighty-Four. The giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis) is an African Even-toed ungulate Mammal, the tallest of all land-living Animal Species The Okapi ( Okapia johnstoni) is a Mammal native to the Ituri Rainforest, located in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Both are confined to sub-saharan Africa: the giraffe to the open savannas, and the okapi to the dense rainforest of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (République démocratique du Congo often referred to as DR Congo, DRC or RDC, and formerly known or referred to The two species look very different on first sight, but share a number of common features, including a long, dark-coloured tongue, lobed canine teeth, and horns covered in skin, called "ossicones". Ossicones are horn -like (or Antler -like protuberances on the heads of Giraffes male Okapis and their extinct relatives such as Sivatherium

Giraffids share many common features with other ruminants. They have cloven hooves and cannon bones, much like bovids, and a complex, four-chambered stomach. The equine forelimb is the front or thoracic limb of the Horse. They have no upper incisors or canines, replacing them with a tough, horny pad. Incisors (from Latin incidere, "to cut" are the first kind of Tooth in Heterodont Mammals They are located in the Premaxilla "Cuspid" redirects here For the heart valves see Bicuspid valve and Tricuspid valve. There is an especially long diastema between the front and cheek teeth. Diastema is a gap or space between two Teeth. The term is most commonly applied to be an open space between the upper Incisors (front teeth The latter are selenodont, adapted for grinding up tough plant matter. Molars are the rearmost and most complicated kind of Tooth in most Mammals In many mammals they grind food hence the Latin name mola, " Millstone ^[1] Like most other ruminants, the dental formula for giraffids is:

0. Dentition is the development of Teeth and their arrangement in the Mouth. 0. 3. 3

3. 1. 3. 3

The behavior of the two living species shows little commonality, probably because of their different habitats and ecology.

Their closest fossil relatives include the deer-like palaeomerycids and the climacocerids, many genera of the latter having once been identified as giraffes themselves. Climacoceratidae ("Ladder Horns" is a family of superficially deer-like Artiodactyl Ungulates that were restricted to the Miocene of

Fossil records indicate that many other giraffids thrived between the Miocene era (around 20 million years ago) and the recent past. The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene period and extends from about 23 One major group of extinct giraffids, the sivatheres, had enormous branching ossicones, and would have looked more like massive deer than giraffes.

Classification

• ORDER ARTIODACTYLA
  • Suborder Suina: pigs, hippos and peccaries
  • Suborder Tylopoda: camels and llamas
  • Suborder Ruminantia
    • Infraorder Tragulina
      • Family Tragulidae: chevrotains
    • Infraorder Pecora
      • Family Moschidae: musk deer
      • Family Cervidae: deer
      • Family Antilocapridae: Pronghorn
      • Family Bovidae: cattle, goats, sheep, and antelope
      • Superfamily Giraffoidea
        • Family Climacoceratidae
          • †Climacoceras
          • †Prolibytherium
        • Family Giraffidae
          • †Bohlinia
          • Giraffe, Giraffa camelopardalis
          • †Giraffokeryx
          • †Helladotherium
          • †Honanotherium
          • Okapi, Okapia johnstoni
          • †Paleotragus
          • †Sivatherium
          • †Samotherium
          • †Shansitherium
          • (and many other genera)

Giraffe

Skeleton of Helladotherium, now extinct

References

External links

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