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Giraffes: How's the Weather up There? Tallest of all mammals is the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), a classic example of unusual evolution. The long neck of the giraffe is a derived characteristic as they evolved from ancestors that lacked this trait. A number of reasons were proposed to explain the evolution of the neck which gives insight on how the giraffe got its height. Darwin speculated on the idea that natural selection chooses animals that are best able to feed on the highest treetops, where food is most abundant and competition minimal [3].This interspecific competition could provide a selection pressure that elongated the neck. Lamarck, through his principle of "use and disuse" suggested that the long neck is attributed to the frequent stretching of the neck as giraffes reached for food [3].This hypothesis would infer that long necks were passed to offspring by altered heredity, and so, is thrown...

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