Author Description

There Are Few Creatures More Beautiful, More Aloof, And More Fascinating Than Giraffes. Once Upon A Time They Were Plentiful And Filled African Landscapes From North To South And East To West, But In 2016 They Were Re-classified From 'least Concern' To 'vulnerable' By The International Union For Conservation Of Nature. Their Survival In The Wild Is Not Assured. What Do We Know About Them? Much Has Been Written About Their Private Lives, About Their Behavior, Social Biology And Ecology, And Their History In Art And Diplomacy. But So Far No Book Has Been Written About Their Private Lives, Their Physiology And Their Anatomy And Biochemistry, In Short The Normal Functions Of A Free-living Animal In Its Natural Environment, And It Is These Aspects Of Their Lives That Are The Focus Of This Book. The Study Of A Single Species Could Be Concise And Relatively Simply Told. In Reality It Is Not. A Species Never Evolves In Isolation From The General Biological Milieu In Which It Finds Itself. Tectonics, Astronomical Physics, Climate, And Purely Biological Factors Affecting Food And Water Resources All Shape The Path Of Their Evolution And All Interact With Its Morphology, Its Internal Physiological And Biochemical Systems And The Behavior Patterns That Regulate Its Daily Life. Giraffes Are No Exception As Is Revealed As The Story Told Here Unfolds. Although This Is A Book About The Physiology And Anatomy Of Extant Giraffes Or, In Other Words, About How Modern Giraffes Work, The Most Frequent Questions Asked About Giraffes Are Not About How They Work But How Their Shape Came About. All Three Of The Scientists-darwin, Wallace, And Lamarck-who In The Nineteenth Century Pondered The Question Of How The Shape Of An Animal Develops Used Giraffes To Illustrate Their Ideas. Their Conclusions Were Theoretical. Fossils Of Giraffes Were Few And Gave No Idea Of Who The Ancestors Of Modern Giraffes Were That Bequeathed Their Characters To Their Offspring. When Did Those Ancestors Live, And Where Did They Live? What Were The Selection Pressures Then That Resulted In The Shape Giraffes Have Now? What Advantages Did And Does Their Shape Give Them So That They Can Survive Successfully? Their Survival Is Usually Attributed To Their Great Height And Unique Markings, But It Is The Morphophysiology Of These Extraordinary Creatures That Has Contributed Most To Their Survival. How Do Giraffes Work? The Answers Lie In A Story Filled Not Only With The Internal Workings Of A Unique Creature, But With Geography, And Climate Changes Of Great Magnitude, And The Labors Of Extraordinary People Who Put Many Pieces Of The Puzzle Together--