Comments on: New Discovery: Giraffes May Be 11 Species

By: Tengu

Tengu — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 21:48:16 +0000

And they are one of the jolliest, gentlest creatures ever.

No wonder the Arabs called them the beautiful ones (in opposition to the silly european `Cameleopard`)

(says she who normaly has no time for the big five)

By: dogu4

dogu4 — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 20:32:24 +0000

Why not bring a few breeding populations to the ecologically impoverished southwestern US, along with elephants,camels, cheetahs and a wide range of animals that are now extinct here. It’s been clearly shown that keystone species like giraffes and other big animals actually enhance the carrying capacity of the land by creating ecological niches and altering the landscape itself by creating watering holes and breaks in the otherwise oppressive covering of trees that spring up and reduce diversity when left un-disturbed.
The illusion of an empty desert in our southwest is largely a distorted one due to our impoverished imaginations and the over-grazing of government subsidized cattle ranching. The american serengeti could be (and should be) more than a catch-phrase to describe yellowstone and its spectacular but relatively undiversified inventory of megafauna..

By: MattBille

MattBille — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 15:22:51 +0000

I’m no biologist, but my mentor on these subjects. Dr. Cherie McCollough of Texas A&M (we cowrote the bird taxonomy section of Grzimek’s Animal Encyclopedia), agreed with me that there is no widely accepted definition of what degree of difference in DNA, or what specific characteristics of an animal’s genome, can be pointed to as constituting a break between species.

So, while the paper can be accepted as defining six distinct lineages and 11 distinct populations, it may be premature to call all these species merely because external factors like geography have kept interbreeding down for a long period of time.

An insular tribe of humans in the Amazon will have a genetic lineage and an external appearance very distinct from an Inuit tribe or, for that matter, an average group of American suburbanites, yet no one suggests these groups are species or even subspecies: they are lineages within the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens. These distinct populations not only can interbreed, but, as history tells us, inevitably will do so if they end up living in proximity.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:58:32 +0000

Hear, hear, MM! Well said!

By: mystery_man

mystery_man — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 08:57:43 +0000

Well, being the “splitter” that I am when it comes to taxonomy, this is very interesting news indeed. Ceroill is very correct in that we do not know nearly as much as we think we do (although those of us in fields like biology or zoology sometimes like to act like we do).

It is really shocking to consider the speed by which some of these species numbers are depleted, and that someday in the not so distant future the giraffe may become another cryptid. The think that makes it really sad is that when that happens or slightly before, we are likely to see great interest in finding living specimens and pouring money into conserving any last vestiges of the species. I prefer a more holistic approach. I say let’s put the time, effort, money, and interest into the species BEFORE it gets to the point where it has nearly vanished or worse yet, flickered out of existence forever.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 05:22:52 +0000

Just goes, once again, to show we don’t know so much as we often think we do.

By: Bob Michaels

Bob Michaels — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:14:28 +0000

I wish they would do an analysis of the African Elephant. I bet there has to be at least 5 subspecies.

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 19:28:23 +0000

Tragic…

Thanks for the information, Loren.