Thursday, April 26, 2012

giraffes!

      Originally, the giraffe had a short neck. Short-er, anyway. Jean Baptist Lamarck said that if an organism used a certain part of its body more often or more strenuously, then it would grow. The giraffes cousin, for example, the gazelle, struggled because they had shorter necks and could not reach the high trees. Over time, giraffes evolved and adapted to their high-treed environment by extending their necks long enough so that they could survive in their habitat with long enough necks to eat off of the highest trees. Therefore, giraffes were very successfully able to adapt and evolve over time because they can reach the tops of the trees and get the food that they need. Also, their species is able to continue because they pass this very important trait of long necks onto their children and they pass it on to theirs. 

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_09

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