The evolutionary story of Giraffa camelopardalis is proving to be challenging . A late discovery revealed a 15 million - twelvemonth - old ancestor , named after Queen Amidala from the Star Wars prequels , had an unusualthree - horned head embellishment . Now , a squad of research worker has used advanced reconstruction techniques to establish a 3D practical model of another giraffe relation . As revealed in the journalBiology letter , this beast was an incredibly hard animal with flamboyant , curly car horn flaring out from its skull .
The modern Giraffidae evolutionary group is represented by two living metal money : Giraffa camelopardalis , the long - make out behemoth we all have it away and love , and the smaller , stouter , and more modestly proportion okapi ( Okapia johnstoni ) . The fossilized remains ofSivatherium giganteum(“Shiva ’s giant beast " ) , a distant congener of both , was first found at the base of theHimalayan foothills in Indiain the 1830s .
It was date to have lived around the end of the Pliocene Epoch , 5.33 to 1.8 million old age ago . While that much was known , the physical nature ofS. giganteumhas been less exonerated , as was when and why it finally became extinct . aside from a fewlandmark subject – which dissent on key points regarding the enigmatic brute ’s physical characteristics – there has never been a truly comprehensive reconstruction of its skeleton .
As a upshot , S. giganteumwasinitially misidentifiedas representing a link between modern ruminant ( deer , sheep , giraffe ) – those with multi - compartmented belly – and the disused group “ pachyderm , ” which mistakenly include several animals that actually belong to distinct group . This field , led by Christopher Basu of the Royal Veterinary College , U.K. , aimed to just recreate the out animal using 26 fossil bones from three incompleteS. giganteumspecimens – all of which were borrowed from the Natural History Museum in London .
The skeletal Reconstruction Period of S. giganteum . The build modeled from its modern congeneric are show up in green ( A ) . Its extra - skeletal tissue is modelled in ( B ) . The black bar is adequate to one meter ( 3.3 foot ) . Basu et al./Biology Letters
After assort through the bones by manus and identifying which were missing , they were run down into a digital software program that was used to assemble a 3D simulation of the ancient beast . The missing ribs , back , and pelvis were “ virtually reconstructed using mod giraffe and okapi anatomy , ” Basu tell IFLScience .
The most probable wasted configurations were then animated and modeled in a separate software package package , and the body mass of the beast was estimated . establish on these simulation , S. giganteumwould have stand about 1.8 m ( 5.9 foot ) tall at the shoulder .
Remarkably , this log giraffe - alike creature would haveweighed 1.2 tonnes(1.32 tons ) . In comparison , the modernistic Okapi , which is also roughly the same superlative , weighs just a quarter of that . S. giganteumwas , however , roughly the same weight as a Giraffa camelopardalis . In addition to two heavy , curly trumpet on the top of the maleS. giganteumskulls , each about 70 centimeters ( 28 inches ) long , it also possessed two diminished , pointier horns just above its center .
It was far brusque than the mod giraffe , had a less stretch neck , very heavy , thick legs , and a flavourless face . “ It would have been an telling and strong creature , ” say Basu in astatement . “ Its face would have looked very different from a giraffe . Giraffe ’s have very long , pointed skulls . Sivatheriumhad a very short , flatten out skull . ” At this weighting and peak , the researchers think it to be the largest ruminant mammal ever to have roamed the earthly concern .
Its vast size may have meant that it scramble to find enough food to provide itself with sufficient energy . “ You get to a certain head , as an animal , where your breadbasket is n’t big enough to contain all the food to keep you go , ” Basu noted to IFLScience . “ animal like that are very tender to changes in the environment around it . ” Although it is decidedly unreadable when this animate being went out , it may have gone the way of the Dodo thanks to rapid mood alteration falsify its food supply .
