As we all know, giraffes are now the tallest animals that exist on earth. Their necks are even longer than their bodies and could reach more than 6 feet which sounds incredible. So do they get these long necks from their ancestors or not?
I searched some pictures of giraffe’s ancestors, and the picture showed the process of development from short necks to these extremely long necks which proves that giraffes’ long necks are affected by external factors.
French naturalist Jean Baptiste Lamarck came up with his theory saying that the reason giraffes have long necks is because of their demand for food. Back then, there were lots of different species that were the same heights as giraffes, so food sources became a serious problem for all of them. In order to get more food to survive, they forced themselves to reach for high trees and leaves. As time went on, their neck started to change and became longer and longer. Now that their babies would inherit their long necks and would grown even longer.
Sources:
- http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/why-do-giraffes-have-long-necks/
- https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/wild-things/how-giraffe-got-its-long-neck
I did some research on this topic and found that long necks are passed down from generation to generation. As the supply for food on trees became higher and higher the giraffes with longer necks survived longer and had more time to reproduce. This is an example of survival of the fittest. When you can live longer you have more time to reproduce and because of this you can pass down the gene for longer necks.