Oldest Giraffe Species???

Sarus Crane

Sarus Crane

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I was watching the latest PBS Eons episode about why giraffes evolved such long necks and it made me wonder which species currently alive today (excluding the Okapi) is the most primitive? I would guess its either the Reticulated or Northern Giraffe since giraffes got their start in Eurasia and then spread southward into Africa and these two are found the farthest north on the continent. What are your thoughts?
 
This study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221005467), from a couple of years ago which led to more widespread recognition of the idea of four distinct giraffe species, found the species form 2 species pairs; northern & reticulated, and masai & southern. The deepest divergence is between the common ancestors of these two pairs, so none can be said to be more basal, or have branched off on its own evolutionary lineage first.

If by 'primitive' you mean 'shares the most morphological traits with an earlier ancestor', I'm not sure there's much difference in it, really.
 
Swampy said:
This study (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982221005467), from a couple of years ago which led to more widespread recognition of the idea of four distinct giraffe species, found the species form 2 species pairs; northern & reticulated, and masai & southern. The deepest divergence is between the common ancestors of these two pairs, so none can be said to be more basal, or have branched off on its own evolutionary lineage first.

If by 'primitive' you mean 'shares the most morphological traits with an earlier ancestor', I'm not sure there's much difference in it, really.
Click to expand...
In the one figure depicted in the article, it shows that the Reticulated is slightly more basal than the others. No wonder the Reticulated's look is significantly different than the others!
 
Sarus Crane said:
In the one figure depicted in the article, it shows that the Reticulated is slightly more basal than the others. No wonder the Reticulated's look is significantly different than the others!
Click to expand...
Figure 2? It shows that the divergence between Northern and Reticulated may have occurred slightly earlier than the divergence between the other species pair. That doesn't make either of those two more basal than the other.
 
Chlidonias said:
the most basal
Click to expand...
I mean I still use this term every now and then, cause I've always treated it as "the more basal part of the tree", especially for genuses/families, which may have say a one species outgroup at the end, and then a radiation of more species after the split of the outgroup.
But yeah, not really applicable in this situation, and plesiomorphic is a much better term than 'primitive'.
 
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