If one were to write on an animal, one would be hard-pressed to choose one on which to write. One might simply write on one’s favorite animal, but to do so is challenging for the poor critter won’t hold still long enough to draft as much as a sentence, for he will be agitated at the constant poking of my pen. Joking aside, if one more to write about an animal, one would be inclined to comment on the giraffe. The second runner up would be the platypus.
Charles Darwin held the opinion that the giraffe only has the long neck because the animal was the champion of natural selection. In other words, over the course of time the giraffe gained advantage over animals with much shorter necks in the race to reach food. Gary Larson illustrated his theory (below). I have so many questions.
In the race for food, how did the species not die of starvation? Was the tongue already developed to be tactile for harvesting before or after the neck elongated? If a stronger circulatory system is required to pump blood to the brain at the end of that long neck, how many giraffe heads exploded from the pressure when bending down for a drink of water before the circulatory system evolved the safety measures that prevents such a disaster? I’m just wondering when evolution is going to do something about that 6-8 foot drop to the ground at birth.
