Giraffidae

The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with
deer and bovids. This family, once a diverse group spread throughout Eurasia and Africa, presently
comprises only two extant genera, the giraffe (one or more species of Giraffa, depending on
taxonomic interpretation) and the okapi (the only known species of Okapia). Both are confined to
sub-Saharan Africa: the giraffe to the open savannas, and the okapi to the dense rainforest of the
Congo. The two genera look very different on first sight, but share a number of common features,
including a long, dark-coloured tongue, lobed canine teeth, and horns covered in skin, called
ossicones. Evolutionary background

Shansitherium and Palaeotragus microdon, two giraffids from the Miocene of Asia

The giraffids are ruminants of the clade Pecora. Other extant pecorans are the families
Antilocapridae (pronghorns), Cervidae (deer), Moschidae (musk deer), and Bovidae (cattle, goats
and sheep, wildebeests and allies, and antelopes). The exact interrelationships among the pecorans
have been debated, mainly focusing on the placement of Giraffidae, but a recent large-scale
ruminant genome sequencing study suggests Antilocapridae are the sister taxon to Giraffidae, as
shown in the cladogram below.[1]

Ruminantia Tragulina
Tragulidae
   

Pecora    

   
Antilocapridae
 
 

 
Giraffidae
 
The ancestors of pronghorn diverged from the giraffids in the Early Miocene.[1] This was in part of a
relatively late mammal diversification following a climate change that transformed subtropical
woodlands into open savannah grasslands.

The fossil record of giraffids and their stem-relatives is quite intensive, with fossil of these taxa
include Gelocidae, Palaeomerycidae, Prolibytheridae, and Climacoceratidae.[2][3] It is thought the
palaeomerycids is the ancestral group that given rise to the prolibytherids, climacoceratids and the
giraffids, all three forming a clade of pecorans known as Giraffomorpha.[2][4] The relationship
between the climacoceratids and giraffids is supported by the presence of a bilobed canine,[2] and
have been postulated into two hypotheses. One is the climacoceratids were the ancestors of the
sivatheres, as both groups were large, deer-like giraffoids with branching antler-like ossicones,
while an extinct basal group of giraffoids, canthumerycines, evolved into the ancestors of
Giraffidae.[3] Another more commonly supported hypothesis is climacoceratids were merely the
sister clade to giraffids, with sivatheres being either basal giraffids[2] or descended from a lineage
that also includes the okapi.[5] While the current range of giraffids today is in Africa, the fossil
record of the group has shown this family was once widespread throughout of Eurasia.[2][3][5]

Below is the phylogenetic relationships of giraffomorphs after Solounias (2007),[2] Sánchez et al.
(2015)[4] and Ríos et al. (2017):[5]