17.07.2022
In the structure of the cervical spine of a giraffe. How many cervical vertebrae does a giraffe have? These and other facts about giraffe
There is no clear answer to this question. Each scientist interprets this structural feature of the giraffe’s body in his own way.
Some scientists believe that the giraffe’s long neck appeared in the process of evolution and is necessary for it in order to get the topmost leaves from the trees, the juiciest and most delicious. It is in this process that the giraffe is helped not only by its long neck, but also by its very long tongue. Despite the fact that the giraffe's head is small, its tongue can reach a length of up to 46 centimeters.
How many vertebrae are there in a giraffe's neck?
The long tongue helps the giraffe not only in picking leaves from above, but it is also involved in those moments when the giraffe needs to bend down and pick up something from the ground or drink. Although the giraffe has a long neck, it is not very flexible. In the neck of a giraffe is 7 vertebrae, but they are long in structure and do not provide flexibility to the neck. Therefore, it is not easy for a giraffe to bend over; he has to spread his legs to the sides.
Other scientists argue that nature endowed the giraffe with a long neck to quickly find a partner. They say that from your height you can better see an attractive female.
The giraffe is a long-necked animal.
The giraffe is rightfully considered the tallest animal on earth. His height ( giraffe height including neck) can reach 6 meters. Wherein giraffe neck length– 2.5 meters. But, we hasten to remind you that the giraffe’s height is ensured not only by its long neck, but also by its long legs, thanks to which it easily runs away from enemies. A giraffe can reach speeds of up to 50 km/h!
The long neck and head on it help the giraffe fight predators; in this case, the head acts as a sledgehammer.
I would also like to note the unusual color of the giraffe. Dark spots help this animal skillfully hide in tree bushes.
By the way, there is still only one in the world short-necked giraffe - okapi. This may be useful for your crossword puzzle.
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How many cervical vertebrae does a giraffe have? The answer is here!
May 14, 2015Ask anyone which animal is the tallest of all living on the planet. The answer will be clear: giraffe! What do we know about him, except that he has a beautiful color, moist eyes and a long neck? In this article we will tell you a few facts about this animal - you will find out how many cervical vertebrae a giraffe has, how tall it is, how much it weighs and much more interesting things.
Spotted rarity
Let's start with the fact that at the moment giraffes are listed in the Red Book - there are very few of these animals left in nature. The thing is that giraffes are very peaceful, absolutely non-aggressive animals. Even 200 years ago, they were actively hunted, not only for skins and meat, but also for fun. Currently, giraffes are not killed, but this species is gradually disappearing as a result of landscape changes.
Uniqueness is in the neck!
Despite the long neck and how many cervical vertebrae a giraffe has (due to which this animal is actually not so different from all other representatives of the fauna), they are not always able to recognize danger in time, much less run away from it. In addition, a running giraffe is a rare and very comical sight, reminiscent of a slow gallop.
Just imagine: the height of this animal sometimes reaches 6 meters, and almost half is its neck. How many cervical vertebrae does a giraffe have? Ten, twenty? The reader will be surprised, but there are seven of them! That is, exactly the same as all other animals. Why is this savanna resident’s neck so long, if it’s not at all about how many cervical vertebrae a giraffe has? The thing is that his cervical vertebrae are unusually elongated. It is because of this that the giraffe's neck bends poorly. Also, due to their long necks, giraffes are forced to breathe very often - about 20 breaths per minute. For example, we humans take only 15 breaths in the same period of time.
The weight of an adult male giraffe can reach 800 kilograms. His heart is very powerful. Of course, he has to pump the blood of such a tall creature up his long neck. No wonder it weighs about 11 kilograms!
And I don’t care about the thorns!
Giraffes are big gluttons! Chewing greens, especially acacia, is their favorite pastime. Most likely, this is due to the long neck of the giraffe, through which food takes a long time to reach the esophagus. At the same time, the giraffe’s mouth is unique - it is surrounded by a dense stratum corneum, and its saliva is very viscous. This way, giraffes eat thorns painlessly without the risk of injury.
And if the answer is “Seven!” to the question: “How many cervical vertebrae are there in a giraffe’s spine?” - in principle we expect, the length of the tongue of this long-necked animal is a real shock! He has it - as much as 46 centimeters!
Giraffes sleep standing up and very little - only about 10 minutes a day. Apparently, they manage to doze off while they slowly chew their food.
These inhabitants of the savannah live in small groups of 10-15 individuals. At the same time, they are incredibly “talkative”, however, the human ear is not able to recognize these sounds, since giraffes communicate in the infrasonic range.
Source: fb.ru
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Miscellaneous
Ask anyone which animal is the tallest of all living on the planet. The answer will be clear: giraffe! What do we know about him, except that he has a beautiful color, moist eyes and a long neck? In this article we will tell you a few facts about this animal - you will find out how many cervical vertebrae a giraffe has, how tall it is, how much it weighs and much more interesting things.
Spotted rarity
Let's start with the fact that at the moment giraffes are listed in the Red Book - there are very few of these animals left in nature. The thing is that giraffes are very peaceful, absolutely non-aggressive animals. Even 200 years ago, they were actively hunted, not only for skins and meat, but also for fun. Currently, giraffes are not killed, but this species is gradually disappearing as a result of landscape changes.
Uniqueness is in the neck!
Despite how many cervical vertebrae a giraffe has (due to which this animal is actually not so different from all other representatives of the fauna), they are not always able to recognize danger in time, much less run away from it. In addition, a running giraffe is a rare and very comical sight, reminiscent of a slow gallop.
Just imagine: the height of this animal sometimes reaches 6 meters, and almost half is its neck. How much does a giraffe have? Ten, twenty? The reader will be surprised, but there are seven of them! That is, exactly the same as all other animals. Why is this savanna resident’s neck so long, if it’s not at all about how many cervical vertebrae a giraffe has? The thing is that his cervical vertebrae are unusually elongated. It is because of this that the giraffe's neck bends poorly. Also, due to their long necks, giraffes are forced to breathe very often - about 20 breaths per minute. For example, we humans take only 15 breaths in the same period of time.
The weight of an adult male giraffe can reach 800 kilograms. His heart is very powerful. Of course, he has to pump the blood of such a tall creature up his long neck. No wonder it weighs about 11 kilograms!
And I don’t care about the thorns!
Giraffes are big gluttons! Chewing greens, especially acacia, is their favorite pastime. Most likely, this is due to the long neck of the giraffe, through which food takes a long time to reach the esophagus. At the same time, the giraffe’s mouth is unique - it is surrounded by a dense stratum corneum, and its saliva is very viscous. This way, giraffes eat thorns painlessly without the risk of injury.
And if the answer is “Seven!” to the question: “How many cervical vertebrae are there in a giraffe’s spine?” - in principle we expect, the length of the tongue of this long-necked animal is a real shock! He has it - as much as 46 centimeters!
Giraffes sleep standing up and very little - only about 10 minutes a day. Apparently, they manage to doze off while they slowly chew their food.
These inhabitants of the savannah live in small groups of 10-15 individuals. At the same time, they are incredibly “talkative”, however, the human ear is not able to recognize these sounds, since giraffes communicate in the infrasonic range.
1. The tongue of an adult giraffe is about half a meter long and is so mobile that the giraffe can pick its ear with the tip of its tongue.
2. The giraffe's heart is especially strong, weighing 12 kg and passing 60 liters of blood per minute, thereby creating a pressure that is three times higher than that of a human.
3. The giraffe's neck can reach over 6 meters and consists of only 7 vertebrae. What surprised scientists was that the giraffe's amazingly long neck has the same number of vertebrae as the necks of mice and most other mammals. But in a giraffe, unlike most other mammals, the vertebrae are elongated and have a special “ball-and-hole” structure, which gives the neck remarkable flexibility. Thanks to this, the giraffe can bend and contort its neck as it needs to in order to groom its entire body and carefully pluck the highest branches of trees.
4. A giraffe's eyes are set so that it can see in all directions without turning its head. Giraffes also have color vision.
5. It is widely believed that giraffes are voiceless animals. However, in reality they communicate with each other at frequencies below 20 Hz, inaudible to human hearing.
6. The gallop of giraffes is very peculiar: the animal can simultaneously lift both front legs off the ground, only by throwing its neck and head far back and thus shifting its center of gravity. Therefore, a galloping giraffe constantly, as if deeply nods, bows with each jump. This seemingly clumsy manner of galloping does not prevent him from reaching speeds of up to 50 km/h. And the jumps reach up to 8 meters long.
7. A giraffe is born in a standing position, so the first thing newborns have to do is fall from a height of two meters. Immediately after birth, the baby giraffe reaches 1.8 m in height and 50 kg. After just an hour, the cub stands firmly on its feet and after a few hours begins to run.
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At the beginning of August, the Moscow Zoo's living mascot Samson celebrates his 20th birthday. Giraffes are one of the most amazing and unusual animals on the planet. We'll tell you what exactly makes them so
The tallest animals on the planet
The height of adult females is 4.6 meters, male giraffes can grow up to 6 meters, and their weight sometimes exceeds 1.5 tons. Females are shorter and not as heavy - maximum 800 kg. The main part of the length falls on the front legs and neck, which can grow up to two meters.
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And it's not just about the length of the neck. The joints between the cervical vertebrae of this animal are designed in the same way as the joint that connects the arm to the shoulder - this design allows us to move the upper limbs in all directions. At the same time, giraffes have only seven vertebrae in their two-meter neck - as many as other mammals, whose necks are several times shorter. Giraffes can lower their necks almost to the ground to drink water and lay them on their hips to rest, facing backwards. They can wrap it around the neck of the female they like and swing it to inflict a sensitive head blow on the opponent.
Giraffes can lie down, but they try not to.The task of getting up from the ground is not trivial for giraffes. This process requires significant tension of all muscles, and if the giant falls - which is quite likely due to the shifted center of gravity - he will almost inevitably break his legs. Therefore, giraffes try to sit down and, moreover, lie down as rarely as possible, and sleep mostly while standing. Cubs who still treat their bodies poorly even fall to the side, without straightening their legs, if they decide to lie down. Walk only on hard surfacesTheir large mass and thin limbs make even normal walking difficult: giraffes can only move on hard surfaces. Giraffes are famous for their spotted skin color, and each animal has it individually. These animals live in African savannas south and southeast of the Sahara. In the wild, giraffes live for about 25 years. Giraffes have a very long tongueThe main dish of giraffes is acacia leaves. They contain a lot of moisture, and thanks to this animals can for a long time not to drink. Their tongue, which reaches half a meter in length, helps them reach foliage at heights. Helped people develop a spacesuitDue to gravity, blood accumulates in the lower part of the giraffe's legs. More precisely, this would have happened if the animals’ bodies had not adapted to the monstrous pressure of 400 mm Hg. Art. The strengthened walls of blood vessels and dense layers of connective tissue in the skin prevent blood from accumulating below. These mechanisms work so effectively that the American Space Agency (NASA) partially copied them when developing spacesuits. A giraffe's heart weighs more than 10 kgGiraffes raise and lower their heads hundreds of times a day, but to get to the brain, blood must travel about three meters. The total volume of blood in the giraffe's neck is so great that, if there were human vessels in the head of these animals, they would immediately be torn apart by colossal pressure. Giraffes are saved from oxygen starvation by their impressive size heart - it often weighs more than 10 kilograms, and its length exceeds 60 centimeters. Giraffes do not faint from oxygen starvation when they raise their heads, and their arteries do not burst when blood rushes to their lowered head, thanks to the extremely elastic vascular wall. It takes on the blood pressure, and the pressure in the brain remains virtually unchanged. If the vessels were a little less elastic, they would be compressed when the giraffe tried to bend its neck. Giraffes give birth standing upWhen a lion appears, a lying female will not be able to quickly get up and protect the newborn. The cub falls from a height of 1.5 meters, and its hind legs serve as a shock absorber when it hits the ground. Like the young of other large ungulates, giraffe calves are born with their limbs forward, and their head lies on the rump. If the newborn takes a different position, he will inevitably break his neck. Giraffe skin is so strong that shields are made from it.According to the leading zoologist of the mammal department of the Moscow Zoo, Ekaterina Morozova, in a normal situation, giraffes feel great, their extreme physiology does not cause them any inconvenience. On the contrary, thanks to their stronger skin, they are more resistant, for example, to bleeding. Giraffe skin is so dense that the Maasai use it to make shields. Therefore, giving a giraffe an injection is a big problem. The drugs are administered to animals using flying syringes, which are fired from some kind of gun. Giraffe is very difficult to treatOnly a veterinarian with special skills can give an injection to a giraffe: you need to hit the animal in the chest, because the needle does not pierce the skin on the rump, legs or withers. A sleeping giraffe also needs to be laid out in a special way: the body is pressed down with some soft structure like a haystack, otherwise the head falling from a six-meter height will break on the ground. In addition, giraffes, like other ruminants, chew their food several times, regurgitating poorly digested food back into the mouth. oral cavity. If a sleepy giraffe lowers its head, it will choke on the food mass - chewing gum. In order to perform any operation on a giraffe, you need 10-15 people who support, lay the animal down, and prevent it from falling. To facilitate this process, from the age of two, giraffes begin to learn to go into a special box, give their legs so that veterinarians can take blood, and so on. This is called medical training. On average, giraffes agree to “cooperate” with veterinarians after 5-6 years of regular training. Thanks to the extremes of physiology, giraffes are very well adapted to their living conditions and take full advantage of a niche inaccessible to other animals. And since they do not know that their body is working at the limit of its capabilities, they are unlikely to worry about themselves. But such a precise adjustment to the environment makes them very vulnerable to even small changes - the danger of extinction constantly looms before these beautiful animals. |
