Evolution of Giraffes and their Giant Relatives
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ก.ค. 2019
- A quick overview of giraffes and some of their close relatives.
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Sources:
www.newscientist.com/article/...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
the first time i saw a picture of an Okapi as a kid i thought this can't be a real animal. It looks like one of those artist depictions of a prehistoric animal. Then you read a bit about it and find out it's a Jungle Giraffe. Such a cool animal
I have seen them in real life, as the Rotterdam Zoo has them
Okapis are so big too. Like they're basically as big as a horse or moose.
Me in London zoo and in disney florida animal kingdom
Tbh I forget they exist sometimes
The Giraffe lineage is basically an evolutionary fashion show dedicated to head-dresses
5:43 could you imagine the magical experience that must have been for the humans at the time to witness such creatures.
I know! The BBQs must of been magical back then. Look at the size of that thing.
5:15 don't forget about this one too
yeah they just killed and ate it lol
@@100Creed like a magical experience in their gut Lol
well, i'd assume it was similar to us seeing an elephant for the first time
Your videos are so well done and always turn out quite interesting. I always watch even if I'm not sure if I'd be interested in the topic
Thank you, good to hear
You-cool.
@@mothlightmedia1936 you are amazing
Simp
Same
Having long legs, the less thought about feature of giraffes, keeps predators from getting a hold of your vital parts. Having a head so far above predators' jaws and claws means that it is near impossible to jump on top of a giraffe and grapple them to the ground. The long neck could aid this by completely denying the head as a "point of control" during a fight. In addition to defense, both long legs and neck are energy savers: long legs means fewer steps to get to your destination and a long neck means you can eat small bits of dispersed food without moving your bulk around very far
All very fine advantages... I just can't shake the thought that this is what homer Simpson would evolve into (if he existed & was a species).
Now I can't get the image of homer the giraffe out of my head...
It’s the legs that are extraordinary long, not their necks. You can look at this when they’re drinking, or grazing on grass. If their necks were proportional to their legs, they wouldn’t have to splay them out to reach the water for a sip. Deer, moose, cows, and other ruminates don’t have to do this. Their necks are actually shorter than they should be, in relation to their legs.
@@nathanielkidd2840 Agreed. It was legs first, then neck to compensate
Your comment reminded me, lions frequently kill their prey by crushing the throat. Can't get your throat crushed if no one can reach it!
k halliday gr8 b8.
The Giraffe's long neck provides one advantage that I've never heard discussed, and that is the ability to spot predators more easily in tall grass. I know that the adults are not typically preyed upon by any predators today given their size, but it seems this could have been a significant advantage for their ancestors.
Can you imagine what it’d be like to see a Paraceratherium or a large sauropod like Argentinosaurus? Giraffes are already awe inspiring, beautiful creatures and those animals would be just as if not even more spectacular!
I remember reading the Zoobook about giraffes at the local library over and over because the section about giraffe ancestors was my favourite.
golgariSoul yeah, they're of my favourite creatures too
too-Okay.
I have been binge-watching, so I thought I'd better break to drop a comment. I'm loving your work! Shared.
Thank you, I appreciate it
28 de Fevereiro de 2020.
@@pedrocampos1787 04 de fevereiro de 2020
The reason why Giraffes exist is because I gave half the
Okapi population an uppercut
Wouldn't that kill them trough?
2:47 that one looks like it has the Iron Throne on it's head
When you play the game of thrones, you win or go extinct.
Thank you. Don't forget their kick! Can kill a lion.
Lion's are actually really weak on skin,it's just as good as human skin
They just have a powerful bite, and giant and is heavy,and has good pouncing
T I G E R Z, it's not about the hide as much as the skeleton in this case. A giraffe it not unlikely to cause life threatening injuries to a hunter that attacks it, be it through broken bones, organ damage or both
@@zerfixxz I've worked with lions before and believe me, lion hide is waaay thicker than human skin.
@@peskymacaw9033 I think they meant it was exactly the same, I took it to mean that it is potentially vulnerable when considered against something with thick hard to pierce skin like a rhino. In the broader context of skin damage comparatively weak.
But i could be wrong, that was just how I interpreted what they said.
Also I have no first hand experience or exposure to the density of durability of lion skin so for all I know its like leather xD
@@zerfixxz What do you mean by "weak on skin; it's just as good as human skin?"
Seems like all these large mammals died out 8-20 thousand years ago. I wonder why....
20,000 years ago is a tiny little blink of an eye compared to how long these animals have been around for it seems like there are other factors at play.
@Elker Errani In Africa the megafauna had evolved along with humans and were less affected by them then megafauna in other continents. Humans must have contributed but couldn't have been the driving force in Africa atleast. I think ice ages and disease probably wiped them out.
@Elker Errani if the habitat changes, the animals are no longer well adapted for it.
Probably a combination of two things : climate change and human predation. They had survived climate change before, and they had lived with humans for thousands of years. However the two at the same time was too much.
The “humans hunted everything to extinction” explanation seems to always overlook one critical factor: Africa, the continent that humanity has inhabited the longest, still has many large mammals, often close relatives to those who lived in Eurasia. So, why didn’t giraffes, elephants, hippos, lions and hyenas die out at the same time, if not sooner, than their kind in Eurasia?
What I love about this is how close we were to these animals.
If things had gone perhaps a little differently, we could be seeing them today.
21:54.
@Elker Errani humans did not kill off every single extinct animal.
@@slendydie1267 It doesn't matter. We have terminated a lot of other animals, all Pleistocene giants are gone only because of us. We are savage, we kill for fun or due to us being scared of something. A mistake made our ancestors evolve into what we are now, if you think of it, we shouldn't exist and the world shouldn't be as damaged as it is now only because of a single species.
Sivatherium's are gorgeous. I'm so glad they were included in Zoo Tycoon 2, surprisingly the thing that introduced me to them.
@Shivam Joshi I couldn't tell ya, mate.
@Shivam Joshi if I had to take a guess. It was probably some kind of error that became the correct option
That was where I first learned about them, too. They were one of my favorite animals in that game.
@Shivam Joshi "Śiva" is the Sanskrit transliteration of शिव. They didn't use an incorrect spelling.
That clip of the giraffes fighting cracked me up, I’ve never seen that before
DougtheDonkeyTV They even knock each other out too! Look it up on TH-cam!
@Mikey D thank you, I will! That sounds hilarious
This channel makes me realize how many awesome prehistoric animals we are missing out on.
Not true we’re have the biggest animal to ever exist right now
Dude i think it’s amazing that we still get to have giraffes 🦒 they need to be protected at all times.
Another great video! There was actually a 2016 study that found pretty conclusive/compelling genetic evidence that the modern giraffe actually consists of at least four distinct, reproductively isolated species that do not readily interbreed, even when their ranges overlap. These would be the Northern Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), the Reticulated Giraffe (G. reticulata), the Southern Giraffe (G. giraffa), and the Masai Giraffe (G. tippelskirchi). Although still contested (as are many changes in taxonomy), with the IUCN still recognizing only one species with nine subspecies, this would mean that there are actually at least five extant giraffe species (including the Okapi), not just two. It also makes the conservation status of giraffes even more dire, and conservation efforts for each species/subspecies that much more important.
That is interesting
Uhh-Yeeah.
This was a great video!
Thank you and cool capybara
@@mothlightmedia1936 Thank you! I was going to ask if you were going to make an episode on Neochoerus pinckneyi the giant capybara?
@@JoeJoeTheCapybara probably, I was thinking of making a video about giant rodents
hey, is it ok if I use a clip from one of your videos in one of mine, one of the capybara swimming ones.
@@mothlightmedia1936 absolutely man! You can use any ones you want.
I have to wonder about a Giraffe's eyesight. The view must be incredible up there. That view, and those long legs, must give it an advantage avoiding predators.
The largest living Artiodactyl is not the giraffe. It is the Blue Whale. The blue whale is likely the most massive animal ever. (There are fragmentary fossils of Ichthyosaurs which suggest some may have been bigger.) And yes, whales are Artiodactyls. The earliest ancestors of whales looked like tiny deer with long tails.
He means on Land. Yes in the Ocean, the largest Artiodactyl and largest animal on Earth is indeed the Blue Whale. But the Giraffe is the largest living Artiodactyl on land.
We are talking on land here get your head out of the water.
Outdated sources still list cetaceans as separate from artiodactyls despite the fact that they are a subgroup of artiodactyls. So no it's not just on land, it's stuck in the 1860s.
Do we know for a fact amphicoelias fragilimus didn't get over 100,000 kg? Granted we don't have surviving fossils of it but the original estimates put it at 59 meters. And even revised estimates stay above 50 unless they try to argue it's not actually a species of amphicoelias.
@@petersmythe6462 In 2019 Gregory S. Paul estimated Maraapunisaurus at 35-40 meters (115-131 feet) in length and 80-120 tonnes (88-132 short tons) in weight with a femoral length of 3-3.5 meters (10-11.5 ft) or more, larger than Carpenter's estimation . In 2020, Molina-Pérez and Larramendi estimated Maraapunisaurus at 35 meters (115 ft) and 70 tonnes (77 short tons) with a hip height of 7.7 meters (25.3 ft). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maraapunisaurus?wprov=sfla1
I cannot stop watching these videos. I've always been a paleontology geek and this channel is heaven.
Sivatherium looks like some sort of alien moose at first glance.
I feel like living in Africa is the only way to really experience land dwelling megafauna.
I mean, moose could maybe be considered megafauna, those things are huge
@@donaldbaird7849 I have never seen a moose. I have had an elephant charge at my car though 🤣 can the do damage to a vehicle?
@Elker Errani what is the difference between elk and moose?
@Shivam Joshi I totally get that there are other megafauna in other parts of the world. But I can see elephants, Rhinos, hippos and giraffes, as well as lions (i dunno if they really count as MEGA) nile crocodiles and massive pythons, all a few hours from my house. The numbers of animals we have is also huge. Have you ever seen 30 giraffes walking together? It's breathtaking.
@Shivam Joshi no, they don't come near the cities. But there are a few parks in my province, and much bigger ones in other provinces
Always look forward to your vids!
ooookay-let.
You make this so easy to understand. You manage to keep me interested in stuff that I enjoy. I usually don’t understand evolutionary things but you actually manage to not only make me watch it and enjoy it, you make me want to watch more. I love everything you do on YT. (Tysm for reading this if you did)
Giraffes: *being the last living member of a once diverse family*
Humans: "oh we will get to you"
Funnily enough humans are also the last living member of a once diverse family
@@ApexRevolution Ha! Never thought about that
Just found this channel and it's now one of my favorite!
Very well done and informative. I really appreciate that you focus on the information and don't add goofy dumb jokes or cartoons geared towards little kids. Feels like an actual adult channel
I could fall asleep to ur voice in a good way
I am devouring your videos at a rate of three or four a day for a few days now! Great work, good visuals and a fascinating glimpse into an era that I've always found actually more interesting than the previous ones. I mean, I just can't warm up to dinosaurs - but anything Cenozoic, I'm all for it. Thanks!
People don’t appreciate how special pronghorns are. They look like all of those extinct giraffe relatives, like they just leaped out of a paleoart book, and live in North America of all places
To second other comments, videos are always interesting. Mostly to the point and not much fluff. Dig the content and learning things I didn’t know I wanted to know. You keep creating I will keep watching and liking.
This is a really good channel. Totally subscribed now 👍🏽
Dude what is that music in the background. It drive me nuts that you don't include that in your intro because its such a peaceful song.
Fr what is it I needa know
Your videos and your layout are phenomenal!
Thank you I appreciate it
Good stuff. Your videos make this stuff interesting again to those of us who never lost our curiosity!
Awesome content every time!
I always thought that the giraffes evolved the long necks for the niche of eating high vegetation, as well as for higher vantage point to spot predators. And the reason why modern day giraffe are generalist in their diets is because giraffes that hyper fixated to evolved and eat high vegetation died out due to climate change and or even were outcompeted by elephants that routinely knocked down trees to eat the same food as well as decreasing the amount of trees with favorable leaves.
Wonderful video! I love these kinds of videos on evolution. As a biology student, I'd appreciate if you could perhaps put the family names etc in the video or in the description so it would be possible to look up information about them after the video.
I like your videos, they are like detailed versions of pbs eons videos. Also giraffes are my favorite animals so this video is cool.
One of my favorite animals. Never knew many of these things about them. Thank you for this information.
I never knew this info. Thanks for presenting it!
Reason for giraffes long neck
As u all guys know that today we have something called pruning.A method (artificial)used to get fruits at a lower height.Plants grow through principle called apical dominance,which is sending necessary water and minerals to top of plant and tress,well however if u prune it u can get the fruits way lower.so giraffes are the nature's pruner which make easy for shorter animals to have fruits.
I really like the way you explain..
Your videos about megafauna are amazing... most of the OG mammals rivaled dinos in size... wow... only sauropods stand now for the longest and tallest terrestrial animal. IIRC the weight estimates for weight of the largest mammal and dino are about the same.
I love every video on this channel 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Great video, thanks for the info!
Great content really informative thanks alot for sharing.
The long neck is attractive to mates because the offspring will have guaranteed access to the food source that short neck giraffes don't have.
“Giraffes are in a group called Pecora”
I’m sorry, but I must
KON↗️PEKO↘️KON↗️PEKO↘️
Sivatherium has to be one of the most badass-looking animals I've ever seen.
Amazing video, thank you.
Positively fascinating. Thank you again.
Your videos are TOP NOTCH😀👍
The goat just vibing waiting to be called
Years ago, at the zoo, a giraffe walks straight over to the edge of his enclosure and stuck his head over the barrier. Of all the people there, he kept this eyes on me, and only withdrew after I had patted him gently on the nose. I don't know what caught his interest, but he clearly wanted to say hello.
3:22 - There's a concept called Liem's Paradox which states that animals with specialized feeding structures might have generalized diets. For example, an animal with teeth and jaws adapted for crushing shells or nuts might eat soft food most of the time. I don't know if this applies to giraffes but might be something to keep in mind.
love these evolution profiles
I'm actually in the process of putting together a theory as to the role long necks play in giraffe sexual selection, and my evidence is perfectly exemplified by the clip that starts around 4:08. I posit that it has nothing to do with which male is stronger or more aggressive during "combat;" rather, it's all about which male can look as goofy as fucking possible doing it.
one of the best channels
Omg i love your videos!
Thank you for sensually stimulating my brain
What's the music you used in this video?
Great videos!! Have you considered doing the evolution of pronghorns?
Great video very interesting.
5:28 convergent evolution doing its copycat shit. can't help but imagine afro Thranduil riding his giant girafe-moose into battle
Immediately subscribed
Awesome video, keep it up
keep-far?
I loved learning about this
Giraffes are awesome, they have the power to kill almost every predator with one kick and are almost untouchable because of their height
YES I FOUND ANOTHER AWESOME NATURE CHANNEL
What programs do you use to make your videos? I'm interested in using the style for some marine animals.
I had to to a PowerPoint on any animals I choose and I did giraffes and this really helped me get an A+ so thank you
wooooowwww all of these horns ! so alien and beautiful!
Does anyone know the background music in this vid? It’s beautiful, as is the vid.
Was looking for this question to see if it was answered, it is quite calming
@@chaseblackstone8749 I don't know how to get in contact with Mothlight, do you? There's no email on their TH-cam "about" page
I’d like to know how giraffes rank among tallest mammals ever?
Eternal life is all I long for this is just amazing
Please consider putting the text of the names on screen, as the automatic closed captioning cannot transcribe the unusual words. Thanks!
Up where I live, we have pronghorns all over. My dad watches them calf (or relative word) this time of year (spring to summer) behind his house. Real lovely animals, live in herds with a strong male, a lot like deer. They say they're incredibly fast to be living in North America where we don't have fast predators, but for evolving where they did in Africa, pretty important.
Pronghorns evolved from faster predators that are extinct in North America
Nah pronghorn evolved to be fast because there are an extinct american cheetah.
Fascinating
Amazing
"Ruminids are the largest members by far"
Whales: Ayo what you say?!
Your videos make me happy and sad at the same time I’m happy that something existed and I’m sad now that it doesn’t most things are out of our control but here about only a few relative still remain and people poach these beautiful creators and are older then us makes me so sad these things are living glimpses into our past and uneducated waste of human life kill them because they want a rug
Great story.
How about the evolution of a sparrow or seagull?
What is the music you use in your videos?
I don’t know what it is but I fucking love your videos man
Thank you for the nod to pronghorn. So many people disregard them as being related and try and place them with antelope
Fun fact: pecora in italian means sheep
What is the music he uses for the background of the videos
I always found them a weird animal growing up
We always say animals from the past are weird. But i gotta say the giraffe is weirder than a big portion of them. For their body even the legs are very long and skinny. The most obvious thing is the neck and at the end of that thick thing they have a relatively small head compared to the rest of their body which somewhat resembles a baby horse's head but also has antlers which are small and also covered by skin and hair. They have hooves and are yellow in color and have brown spots and patterns. They also have a small mane running down the back of their whole neck. And even the head which looks small on them is absolutely huge.
Imagine having only 3 stomachs LOL
I don't know how that can swing their heads like that without snapping bone, incredible stuff.
Ngl giraffes with BIG HORNS look more brutal than today's wimpy version.
Supposedly if giraffes' necks were any shorter, they would be unable to reach their head to the ground to drink water. (And even then, they can only do this with their legs splayed, and in fact, you've got a clip of that in this video at about 3 and a half minutes in.) Okapis too have to splay their legs to reach their head low enough to drink water (and for whatever reason, this restriction appears to be unique to just those two grazers), and so if okapi were to evolve to have longer legs then their necks would probably need to become longer too. But of course, that's basically exactly what a giraffe is., a long-legged okapi. Giraffes started evolving to have long legs from living out in the savanna (not unlike maned wolves and maras), and so started needing equally lengthy necks in order not to die of thirst. That's the best explanation I've heard for why giraffes have long necks.
A miracle of evolutionary design
Gracias