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The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa.It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth.Traditionally, giraffes have been thought of as one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies.
The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a recent common ancestor with deer and bovids.This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (between one and eight, usually four, species of Giraffa, depending on taxonomic interpretation) and the okapi (the only known species of Okapia).
The morphology of ossicones in the extinct relatives of giraffes and okapi varies widely. Some species had two pairs of ossicones rather than one (e.g. Giraffokeryx), some had rugged textures (e.g. Shansitherium), and some had large, flattened ossicones (e.g. male Prolibytherium).
While an antler is growing it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone. [62] Antlers are considered one of the most exaggerated cases of male secondary sexual traits in the animal kingdom, [ 63 ] and grow faster than any other mammal bone. [ 64 ]
The IUCN currently recognizes only one species of giraffe with nine subspecies. [1] Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi is named after the Tring Museum's founder, Walter Rothschild, [2] and is also known as the Baringo giraffe, after the Lake Baringo area of Kenya, [3] or as the Ugandan giraffe.
The current IUCN taxonomic scheme lists one species of giraffe with the name G. camelopardalis and nine subspecies. [1] [7] A 2021 whole genome sequencing study suggests the northern giraffe as a separate species, and postulates the existence of three distinct subspecies, [8] and more recently, one extinct subspecies. [9] [10] [11]
Living giraffes were originally classified as one species by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, under the binomial name Cervus camelopardalis. Morten Thrane Brünnich classified the genus Giraffa in 1772. [ 6 ] Once considered a subspecies of the conglomerate Giraffa camelopardalis species, recent studies proposed the southern giraffe as a separate species ...
The Masai giraffe (Giraffa tippelskirchi [2]), also spelled Maasai giraffe, and sometimes called the Kilimanjaro giraffe, is a species or subspecies of giraffe. It is native to East Africa. The Masai giraffe can be found in central and southern Kenya and in Tanzania. It has distinctive jagged, irregular leaf-like blotches that extend from the ...