26-461: The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a recent common ancestor with deer and bovids . This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (between one and eight, usually four, species of Giraffa , depending on taxonomic interpretation) and the okapi (the only known species of Okapia ). Both are confined to sub-Saharan Africa :
52-449: A complex, four-chambered stomach. They have no upper incisors or upper canines , replacing them with a tough, horny pad. An especially long diastema is seen between the front and cheek teeth. The latter are selenodont , adapted for grinding up tough plant matter. Like most other ruminants, the dental formula for giraffids is 0.0.3.3 3.1.3.3 . Giraffids have prehensile tongues (specially adapted for grasping). The extant giraffids,
78-412: A family— or whether a described family should be acknowledged— is established and decided upon by active taxonomists . There are not strict regulations for outlining or acknowledging a family, yet in the realm of plants, these classifications often rely on both the vegetative and reproductive characteristics of plant species. Taxonomists frequently hold varying perspectives on these descriptions, leading to
104-554: A lack of widespread consensus within the scientific community for extended periods. The continual publication of new data and diverse opinions plays a crucial role in facilitating adjustments and ultimately reaching a consensus over time. The naming of families is codified by various international bodies using the following suffixes: The taxonomic term familia was first used by French botanist Pierre Magnol in his Prodromus historiae generalis plantarum, in quo familiae plantarum per tabulas disponuntur (1689) where he called
130-514: A prime food source. Giraffe are not territorial, but have ranges that can dramatically vary between – 5 and 654 km (1.9 and 252.5 sq mi) – depending on food availability, whereas okapis have individual ranges about 2.5–5 km (0.97–1.93 sq mi) in size. Family (biology) Family ( Latin : familia , pl. : familiae ) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy . It
156-596: Is an extinct family of Neogene ruminants belonging to the infraorder Pecora . Palaeomerycids lived in Europe and Asia exclusively during the Miocene, coevolving with cervids , bovids , moschids , and tragulids there as part of a dramatic radiation of ruminants by the early Miocene. Dromomerycids are sometimes considered to be subfamilies of the Palaeomerycidae, but recent research brought doubt to this, arguing that
182-431: Is classified between order and genus . A family may be divided into subfamilies , which are intermediate ranks between the ranks of family and genus. The official family names are Latin in origin; however, popular names are often used: for example, walnut trees and hickory trees belong to the family Juglandaceae , but that family is commonly referred to as the "walnut family". The delineation of what constitutes
208-440: Is the phylogenetic relationships of giraffomorphs after Solounias (2007), Sánchez et al. (2015) and Ríos et al. (2017): † Palaeomerycidae † Prolibytheridae † Climacoceratidae † Canthumerycinae † Giraffokerycinae † Bohlininae Giraffinae † Palaeotraginae Okapiinae † Samotheriinae † Sivatheriinae Below is the total taxonomy of valid extant and fossil taxa (as well as junior synonyms which are listed in
234-458: The Genera Plantarum of George Bentham and Joseph Dalton Hooker this word ordo was used for what now is given the rank of family. Families serve as valuable units for evolutionary, paleontological, and genetic studies due to their relatively greater stability compared to lower taxonomic levels like genera and species. Palaeomerycidae See text The Palaeomerycidae
260-449: The ancestors of Giraffidae. Another more commonly supported hypothesis is climacoceratids were merely the sister clade to giraffids, with sivatheres being either basal giraffids or descended from a lineage that also includes the okapi. While the current range of giraffids today is in Africa , the fossil record of the group has shown this family was once widespread throughout of Eurasia . Below
286-431: The brackets). Family Giraffidae J.E.Gray, 1821 The giraffe stands 5–6 m (16–20 ft) tall, with males taller than females. The giraffe and the okapi have characteristic long necks and long legs. Ossicones are present on males and females in the giraffe, but only on males in the okapi. Giraffids share many common features with other ruminants. They have cloven hooves and cannon bones , much like bovids, and
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#1732852223452312-406: The dromomerycids lack the sutures on the skull roof that giraffomorphs ( Giraffidae , Palaeomerycidae, Climacoceratidae ) have for ossicone features. The similar resemblances of the two families could be the result of parallel evolution . Palaeomerycids were a group of horned, long-legged and massive ruminants that could attain a weight of 350 to 500 kg (770 to 1,100 lb). One of
338-530: The family as a rank intermediate between order and genus was introduced by Pierre André Latreille in his Précis des caractères génériques des insectes, disposés dans un ordre naturel (1796). He used families (some of them were not named) in some but not in all his orders of "insects" (which then included all arthropods ). In nineteenth-century works such as the Prodromus of Augustin Pyramus de Candolle and
364-466: The first known members of this group, Palaeomeryx , was thought to be a hornless form distantly related to the Giraffidae before paleontologist Miguel Crusafont found remains of Triceromeryx in middle Miocene Spain. This Palaeomeryx -like form carried two ossicones over its orbits that were straight and short, similar to those of true giraffids. However, the most striking feature of Triceromeryx
390-420: The forest-dwelling okapi and the savannah-living giraffe, have several features in common, including a pair of skin-covered horns, called ossicones, up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long (absent in female okapis); a long, black, prehensile tongue; lobed canine teeth; patterned coats acting as camouflage; and a back sloping towards the rear. The okapi's neck is long compared to most ruminants, but not nearly so long as
416-633: The giraffe to the open savannas , and the okapi to the dense rainforest of the Congo . The two genera look very different on first sight, but share a number of common features, including a long, dark-coloured tongue, lobed canine teeth, and horns covered in skin, called ossicones . The giraffids are ruminants of the clade Pecora . Other extant pecorans are the families Antilocapridae ( pronghorns ), Cervidae ( deer ), Moschidae ( musk deer ), and Bovidae ( cattle , goats and sheep , wildebeests and allies , and antelopes ). The exact interrelationships among
442-483: The giraffe's. Male giraffes are the tallest of all mammals: their horns reach 5.5 m (18 ft) above the ground and their shoulder 3.3 m (11 ft), whereas the okapi has a shoulder height of 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in). The two extant genera are now confined to sub-Saharan Africa . The okapi is restricted to a small range in the northern rainforest of the Democratic Republic of Congo . Although
468-464: The giraffids in the Early Miocene . This was in part of a relatively late mammal diversification following a climate change that transformed subtropical woodlands into open savannah grasslands . The fossil record of giraffids and their stem-relatives is quite intensive, with fossil of these taxa include Gelocidae , Palaeomerycidae , Prolibytheridae , and Climacoceratidae . It is thought that
494-509: The lateral branches expanding toward the front. In primitive members of the group (e.g. Ampelomeryx ), this appendage was a posterior expansion of the occipital bone lying close to the powerful muscles supporting the skull in a normal position, thus suggesting that this appendage was actually used for fighting between males during the breeding season. The reduced shapes of the flat and laterally oriented appendages of later species suggests that these were not used in active fighting, instead forming
520-499: The paired appendages extending laterally over the orbits, flat and wide, forming an eye-shade, while the third spectacular posterior appendage was about 20 cm (7.9 in) long. Another species of Triceromeryx , T. conquensis found in La Retama in Spain, showed an even more spectacular appendage — instead of a Y-shaped structure, its posterior appendage was T-shaped with
546-512: The palaeomerycids, prolibytherids, climacoceratids and the giraffids all form a clade of pecorans known as Giraffomorpha . The relationship between the climacoceratids and giraffids is supported by the presence of a bilobed canine, and have been postulated into two hypotheses. One is the climacoceratids were the ancestors of the sivatheres , as both groups were large, deer-like giraffoids with branching antler-like ossicones , while an extinct basal group of giraffoids, canthumerycines , evolved into
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#1732852223452572-465: The pecorans have been debated, mainly focusing on the placement of Giraffidae, but a recent large-scale ruminant genome sequencing study suggests Antilocapridae are the sister taxon to Giraffidae, as shown in the cladogram below. Tragulidae [REDACTED] Antilocapridae [REDACTED] Giraffidae [REDACTED] Cervidae [REDACTED] Bovidae [REDACTED] Moschidae [REDACTED] The ancestors of pronghorn diverged from
598-690: The range of the giraffe is considerably larger, it once covered an area twice the present size – all parts of Africa that could offer an arid and dry landscape furnished with trees. The social structure and behavior is markedly different in okapis and giraffes, but although little is known of the okapi's behavior in the wild, a few things are known to be present in both species: Giraffes are sociable, whereas okapis live mainly solitary lives. Giraffes temporarily form herds of up to 20 individuals; these herds can be mixed or uniform groups of males and females, young and adults. Okapis are normally seen in mother-offspring pairs, although they occasionally gather around
624-567: The seventy-six groups of plants he recognised in his tables families ( familiae ). The concept of rank at that time was not yet settled, and in the preface to the Prodromus Magnol spoke of uniting his families into larger genera , which is far from how the term is used today. In his work Philosophia Botanica published in 1751, Carl Linnaeus employed the term familia to categorize significant plant groups such as trees , herbs , ferns , palms , and so on. Notably, he restricted
650-541: The use of this term solely within the book's morphological section, where he delved into discussions regarding the vegetative and generative aspects of plants. Subsequently, in French botanical publications, from Michel Adanson 's Familles naturelles des plantes (1763) and until the end of the 19th century, the word famille was used as a French equivalent of the Latin ordo (or ordo naturalis ). In zoology ,
676-489: Was the third, Y-shaped appendage that prolonged the occipital bone at the back of the skull. Discoveries during the 1980s and 1990s showed a surprising variety in these occipital appendages. Ampelomeryx , a genus of palaeomerycids found at the early Miocene sites of Els Casots , Valles-Penedes Basin , Spain, and Montréal-du-Gers , Gers , France, had a three-horned system of appendages similar to those of Triceromeryx . These appendages were, however, quite different, with
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