The Icons of Evolution finally tested! Who won? Lamarck or Darwin?
Under the fold:
Winning By A Neck: Giraffes Avoid Competing With Shorter Browsers:
The giraffe's elongated neck has long been used in textbooks as an illustration of evolution by natural selection, but this common example has received very little experimental attention. In the January issue of the American Naturalist, researchers at the Mammal Research Institute in the Department of Zoology and Entomology at the University of Pretoria tested whether foraging competition with shorter herbivores could explain why giraffes feed mostly on leaves high in trees, despite being able to feed at lower levels as well.
[Images shamelessly stolen from a Creationist site]
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Once upon a time, there were three giant hippopotamuses...
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This is a completely different story, honey.
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tags: researchblogging.org, giraffe species,
Then there's the necking theory.