These animals had broader skulls with reduced frontal cavities. Giraffids like Palaeotragus, Shansitherium and Samotherium appeared 14 mya and lived throughout Africa and Eurasia. The anatomy of Samotherium appears to have shown a transition to a giraffe-like neck. The extinct giraffid Samotherium (middle) in comparison with the okapi (below) and giraffe. Giraffokeryx may have shared a clade with more massively built giraffids like Sivatherium and Bramatherium. Giraffokeryx appeared 15–12 mya on the Indian subcontinent and resembled an okapi or a small giraffe, and had a longer neck and similar ossicones. This animal resembled an antelope and had a medium-sized, lightly built body. One early giraffid ancestor was Canthumeryx, which has been dated variously to have lived 25–20 mya, 17–15 mya or 18–14.3 mya and whose deposits have been found in Libya. Comparisons between giraffes and their ancient relatives suggest vertebrae close to the skull lengthened earlier, followed by lengthening of vertebrae further down. The elongation of the neck appears to have started early in the giraffe lineage. The family Giraffidae was once much more extensive, with over 10 fossil genera described. A 2019 genome study (cladogram below) finds that Giraffidae are a sister taxon to Antilocapridae, with an estimated split of over 20 million years ago. They are ruminants of the clade Pecora, along with Antilocapridae ( pronghorns), Cervidae (deer), Bovidae (cattle, antelope, goats and sheep) and Moschidae (musk deer). The giraffe is one of only two living genera of the family Giraffidae in the order Artiodactyla, the other being the okapi. "Camelopard" / k ə ˈ m ɛ l ə ˌ p ɑːr d/ is an archaic English name for the giraffe it derives from the Ancient Greek καμηλοπάρδαλις ( kamēlopárdalis), from κάμηλος ( kámēlos), " camel", and πάρδαλις ( párdalis), " leopard", referring to its camel-like shape and leopard-like colouration. The modern English form developed around 1600 from the French girafe. The Italian form giraffa arose in the 1590s. In early Modern English the spellings jarraf and ziraph were used, probably directly from the Arabic, and in Middle English jarraf and ziraph, gerfauntz. The name "giraffe" has its earliest known origins in the Arabic word zarāfah ( زرافة), ultimately from Persian زُرنَاپَا ( zurnāpā), a compound of زُرنَا ( zurnā, “flute, zurna”) and پَا ( pā, “leg”). More than 1,600 were kept in zoos in 2010. Giraffes are still found in numerous national parks and game reserves, but estimates as of 2016 indicate there are approximately 97,500 members of Giraffa in the wild. It is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as vulnerable to extinction and has been extirpated from many parts of its former range. The giraffe has intrigued various ancient and modern cultures for its peculiar appearance, and has often been featured in paintings, books, and cartoons. Dominant males gain mating access to females, which bear sole responsibility for rearing the young. Males establish social hierarchies through "necking", combat bouts where the neck is used as a weapon.
Giraffes live in herds of related females and their offspring or bachelor herds of unrelated adult males, but are gregarious and may gather in large aggregations. Lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, and African wild dogs may prey upon giraffes. Their food source is leaves, fruits, and flowers of woody plants, primarily acacia species, which they browse at heights most other herbivores cannot reach. Giraffes usually inhabit savannahs and woodlands. Its scattered range extends from Chad in the north to South Africa in the south, and from Niger in the west to Somalia in the east. It is classified under the family Giraffidae, along with its closest extant relative, the okapi. The giraffe's chief distinguishing characteristics are its extremely long neck and legs, its horn-like ossicones, and its spotted coat patterns. Seven other extinct species of Giraffa are known from the fossil record. Most recently, researchers proposed dividing them into up to eight extant species due to new research into their mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, as well as morphological measurements. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, Giraffa camelopardalis, with nine subspecies. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus Giraffa.
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