The Evolution of the Long-Necked Giraffe Part 1
[Zurück zur internetlibrary.html] Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig* 30 March 2006 (last update 19 October 2010 on the recurrent laryngeal nerve, p. 30), former updates 11 May 2006, 7 May 2007, and some language corrections 30 September 2008. A note of 9 October (last modified 16 November) 2008 on a recently claimed, but doubtful "missing link", see page 23 below. The Evolution of the Long-Necked Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis L.) – What Do We Really Know? (Part 1) As for Part 2 of the article of 2007 see http://www.weloennig.de/GiraffaSecondPartEnglish.pdf Giraffe, maximum values: life expectancy 34 years, height 5.80m [5.82], weight 1200 kg, speed 52 km/hr, [and general data:] ruminant, dental formula 0033/3133 (like the chamois), 66 heartbeats/minute, blood pressure in mm Hg: systole 340, diastole 230 (average), age of sexual maturity: 6-7 years, gestation period 431-465 days (data so far according to Rainer Flindt 2000), 8 neck vertebrae (!), not 7 as reported in almost all textbooks (Nikos Solounias 1999, 2000), chromosome number 2n=30 (okapi 2n=44, 45 46). "No data from giraffes then [in Darwin’s time] existed to support one theory of causes over another, and none exist now." "…ancestral species are relatively short necked, and the spotty evidence gives no insight into how the long-necked modern species arose.” "The standard story, in fact, is both fatuous and unsupported." Stephen Jay Gould Summary: In the following article the assertions of three supporters of the synthetic theory concerning the evolution of the long-necked giraffe will be discussed: the statements of Ulrich Kutschera, Richard Dawkins and Kathleen Hunt.
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