Giraffes

Why did I choose to write my essay about the giraffe? I chose to write my essay about the giraffe because this mammal has been my favorite animal since the third grade. My science teacher had us do a project about an animal. I did mine on the giraffe and working on that project I became more fascinated by the giraffe as I was working on the project. It made me just wanted to know more. This is why I chose to write my essay about the giraffe. I already knew a little bit of information about the giraffe. I knew that when baby giraffes are born they are dropped five feet to the ground. There is some information I did not know and wanted to know. I wanted to know why their necks are so long; I found out their necks are long so they can be able to look through bushes and tree to eat. They eat the leave off the Acacia tree. I also wanted to know is their only one type of giraffe and I found our there are nine different type of giraffes. There are some things that I knew and things I did not know and I learned a lot. The giraffe is an interesting animal and I learned a lot of new information; it is an African mammal. It’s the tallest land living animal. Males can be 16 to 18 feet tall and weight up to 3,800 pounds. Females are slightly shorter, and weigh less than males do. The giraffe is placed in the scientific classification family called Giraffidae. This family only consists of giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi. Giraffids evolved from a 10 feet tall antelope-like mammal that roamed Europe and Asia 30-50 million years ago. The earliest known giraffid was the Climacoceras, which still look like deer. They had large antler looking ossicones. It first showed up in the Miocene time period. As the evolution time went on the scientific classification genuses Palaetragus and Samotherium appeared early to mid Miocene time period. One species of the Palaetragus showed more giraffe like ossicones. Both the Palaetragus and Samotherium were tall at the shoulder