How many cervical vertebrae does the giraffe have?
With its enormously long neck, the giraffe is the tallest animal in the world. An adult male can reach heights of up to six meters. But does that mean that such an animal has a particularly large number of cervical vertebrae?
Giraffes are vertebrates. Its internal bony skeleton, also known as the endoskeleton, supports the body and thus also the long neck. So a lower cervical vertebra has a lot to bear. How many cervical vertebrae the animal has or how little is amazing.
The animal does not have a particularly large number of cervical vertebrae
As different as vertebrates may be, their internal skeletons show many similarities. The bones of a lion and also those of a rat or even those of a giraffe form a limb skeleton, which is characterized by shoulder and pelvic girdles as well as extremities. The cervical spine is located between the head and the chest.
- There are usually seven vertebral bodies that support the neck. In tiny mice, they can be a few millimeters in size, but they can also measure up to 40 centimeters. This is then a giraffe's cervical vertebra. So the question of how many such eddies the giants have does not arise. The length of the neck is achieved by the size of the vertebrae. These are supported by strong muscles.
- Nevertheless, the question of the number of vertebrae is not unjustified. In many animals, the skeleton has adapted to their habitat and way of life. Some snakes have up to 400 individual vertebrae. They lack the extremities for this. The front legs of birds became wings, those of whales and dolphins became fins. So it would be possible to suspect many cervical vertebrae in the giraffe's long neck. However, there are only seven, as is the case with humans and a mouse.
The giraffe and its height - special features
- The tall body of the giants still has some special features, because the head above and the legs below have to be supplied with oxygen. It takes an extremely strong heart. The organ, which weighs up to 12 kilograms, manages to pump around 60 liters of blood through the veins per minute.
- Giraffes also wear support tights so that this does not build up in their legs. The skin of the legs is very tight. At the same time, the walls of the leg arteries are particularly thick. In order to bring the blood up to the high head, high blood pressure is necessary. The heart of long necks beats up to 170 times per minute.
- But why does the animal have such a long neck anyway? The advantage is that no other animal can eat where giraffes eat. Trees at a height of five meters are out of reach for antelopes, zebras and other ruminants of the savannah. The giraffe has outsmarted its food competitors simply by having a long neck. Your cervical vertebrae became over the course of the evolution always longer and that turned out to be a win. With a particularly thick skin around the bulging cheeks and lips and with a tongue up to 50 centimeters long, the animals also eat thorny acacias and graze tree by tree in this way.
Snakes belong to the scale reptiles and have evolved from ...
Not only the length of the cervical vertebrae, but also many other characteristics of the animals are optimally adapted to their way of life. Only her lanky way of drinking seems a bit strange. A giraffe cannot reach the ground with its long legs. To do this, you have to spread them widely. If you want to go high, you have to live with the difficulty of reaching the depths.
