Why is the giraffe's neck long? The reason you are so surprised

Be careful, giraffes have a long neck not to eat leaves on the tops of trees.

Nearly 6m tall, giraffes are the tallest creatures on the planet. But mostly that height comes from an unusually long neck - up to nearly 2m.

Previously their necks were not as long as this.

However, fossil evidence suggests that before, giraffes were not so tall, their necks were much shorter. So why did they evolve in the direction . not like anyone?

If asked, perhaps the majority will answer that to eat the leaves above, so that they don't have to compete with other animals. This idea has been around since 1809, by French naturalist Jean Baptiste Lamarck. According to him, the process of raising the neck to eat trees on the sky has made their necks longer, and passed down to the next generations.

Others believe that neck is intended to attract mates. In particular, male giraffes who want to fight for a girlfriend will use their long necks to slam against each other, and often the longer one will win.

Others believe that neck is intended to attract mates.

By 1963, A. Brownlee had hypothesized that the neck was a method of regulating deer's body temperature. Because the heat of Africa is increasingly harsh, they rise their necks to increase the area covered with shadow on the body, helping the temperature to be more balanced.

That seemingly absurd hypothesis turned out to be true!

Specifically, researcher Graham Mitchell of Wyoming University (USA) recently conducted a test to evaluate the bodies of giraffes in Zimbabwe. They found that their surface area was very normal - as expected with species of similar mass. However, the long but narrow shape of the neck has a very good cooling capacity.

"Just pointing the head towards the Sun, giraffes can reduce most of the area exposed to the sun," Mitchell said. Thus, their body temperature will decrease.

Just pointing the head towards the Sun, giraffes can reduce most of the area exposed to the sun.

However, Mitchell argues that we need more research to formally draw conclusions. Anyway, this is a very potential hypothesis, which many people appreciate.