What Modern Animal Is The Giraff Related To

Wild fauna & Biodiversity

Ancient giraffe relative was the largest cud-chewing mammal on Earth

With an estimated adult body mass of almost 1,250 kg, this relative of modern ruminants lived in the Himalayan foothills more than one million years ago

Past Aakanksha Varma

Published: Friday 15 January 2016

All known extinct relatives of the modern giraffid family, which consists of giraffes and okapi, had skeletons that are similar in shape Photo courtesy: Basu et al., Biology Letters (2016)

An ancient relative of the giraffe may have been the well-nigh massive ruminant to walk the earth, a new study by three British scientists has suggested.

The extinct species Sivatherium giganteum, now classified as a member of the giraffid family, would accept had a shorter neck and stockier legs than the giraffe, according to the study published in the journalBiological science Letters. With an estimated adult body mass of almost 1,250 kg, this relative of modern ruminants like sheep, goats, cattle and giraffes lived in the Himalayan foothills more than 1 million years ago.

When first discovered, scientists mistakenly thought the massive, moose-similar creature was a link between modernistic ruminants and larger mammals like elephants and rhinoceroses considering of its considerable heft. It was thought to be the size of African elephants, which can weigh upward to 6,500 kg, only reallyweighed well-nigh one-fifth of that number.

"Sivatherium giganteum was so strange at the time that it was discovered. It had a huge skull with a flat face, and twisted horns. It's really an extinct, shut relation to modern giraffes. No i has worked on it much since it was discovered in 1800s," atomic number 82 researcher Christopher Basu told Down To World.

Using fossils found in India in the 1830s and currently housed in the Natural History Museum in London, the researchers constructed a 3-D estimator model of the animal which would have been 5.9 feet tall at the shoulders. The digital skeleton was reconstructed using 26 fossilised bones from at to the lowest degree three animals.

"We have reconstructed the skeleton to the highest degree of accuracy possible, and used this to estimate its weight," Basu said.

The researchers first made models of the known bones, adjusting them to brand them fit at the joints and then filled the gaps with scaled-upwards versions of a modern giraffe's pelvis and torso. After filling in the bones and measuring the animal's volume, the researchers estimated thatDue south. giganteum weighed ane,246 kg, which is 5 per cent more than an average male giraffe.

All known extinct relatives of the modern giraffid family unit, which consists of giraffes and okapi, had skeletons that are like in shape.

The weight estimate is conservative as some of the model basic had to be shrunk by around 15 per cent to fit with bones from other creatures, suggesting that larger individuals ofSouthward. giganteum might take existed.

The team'southward estimate too does not include the weight of the big, flattened horn-similar appendages, which are approximately 70 centimetres (28 inches) long and were probably only present on the males of the species.

"Nosotros constitute that weighing in at over 1200 kg, this was likely the largest of the giraffe-similar animals that e'er existed, and then probable the largest ever ruminant to ever have existed. Sivatherium was really pushing the boundaries of size," the researchers said.

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Source: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/wildlife-biodiversity/ancient-giraffe-relative-was-the-largest-cud-chewing-mammal-on-earth-52476

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