† Umbrotherium azzarolii Abbazzi, Delfino, Gallai, Trebini & Rook, 2008.† Umbrotherium Abbazzi, Delfino, Gallai, Trebini & Rook, 2008.† Shansitherium quadricornis (Bohlin, 1926).† Propalaeomeryx sivalensis Lydekker, 1883.† Injanatherium hazimi Heintz, Brunet & Sen, 1981.† Injanatherium arabicum Morales, Soria & Thomas, 1987.† Injanatherium Heintz, Brunet & Sen, 1981.† Csakvarotherium hungaricum Kretzoi, 1930.Skeletal mount of Shansitherium tafeli on display at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.īelow is the total taxonomy of valid extant and fossil taxa (as well as junior synonyms which are listed in the brackets). (2017): GiraffomorphaĬlassification Skeletal illustration of Helladotherium, now extinct Skeletal mount of Palaeotragus on display at the Tianjin Natural History Museum. īelow is the phylogenetic relationships of giraffomorphs after Solounias (2007), Sánchez et al. 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. Another more commonly supported hypothesis is climacoceratids were merely the sister clade to giraffids, with sivatheres being either basal giraffids or descended from a lineage that also includes the okapi. 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. The relationship between the climacoceratids and giraffids is supported by the presence of a bilobed canine, and have been postulated into two hypotheses. It is thought that the palaeomerycids, prolibytherids, climacoceratids and the giraffids all form a clade of pecorans known as Giraffomorpha. The fossil record of giraffids and their stem-relatives is quite intensive, with fossil of these taxa include Gelocidae, Palaeomerycidae, Prolibytheridae, and Climacoceratidae. This was in part of a relatively late mammal diversification following a climate change that transformed subtropical woodlands into open savannah grasslands.

The ancestors of pronghorn diverged from the giraffids in the Early Miocene. 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. 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 giraffids are ruminants of the clade Pecora. 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.Įvolutionary background Shansitherium and Palaeotragus microdon, two giraffids from the Miocene of Asia

Both are confined to sub-Saharan Africa: the giraffe to the open savannas, and the okapi to the dense rainforest of the Congo. 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).

The Giraffidae are a family of ruminant artiodactyl mammals that share a common ancestor with deer and bovids.

Dom factory giraffe