The long neck of giraffes may have evolved to pull stronger warheads in mating fights and not to collect the tallest leaves: this is suggested by the study of the bizarre fossil of an ancient 'cousin' of the giraffe that lived 17 million years ago. in China.
The findings are published in Science by the Institute of Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Vertebrates (IVpp) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The Discokeryx xiezhi fossil, found over 20 years ago along the northern edge of the Junggar Basin in Xinjiang, includes a complete skull and four cervical vertebrae.
"The Discokeryx xiezhi - says Deng Tao of the Ivpp - has many unique characteristics among mammals, including the development of a large disk-like ossicles in the center of the head" that resembles a helmet.
According to the researchers, the cervical vertebrae were very robust and featured the most complex head-neck joints ever seen in any mammal.
Thanks to a mathematical technique they also estimated the potential forces that the skull and vertebrae could have resisted during different types of impact, showing that the
The analysis of the isotopes fixed in Discokeryx xiezhi's teeth show that the animal lived in open grasslands, a habitat similar to that of modern giraffes: this clue could also suggest shared behaviors between the two species.
