Here we see a couple of males of Discokeryx xiezhi, a fairly recent and very cool find from China. As far as we can tell, this was a very early relative of our modern giraffes: it lived about 17 million years ago, in the Miocene, which as far as I am concerned was a way cool epoch. Fossils include material from the skull and neck, showing the high level of specialization of these beasties ... they had on top of their heads a thick, flat, disk-shaped 'helmet', and very complicated joints between the head and the neck. We deduce that they used these features for head-butting contests, likely between males. Today, bull giraffes knock each other with their heads, using their long necks to swing them like huge warhammers. Discokeryx gives us clues about early evolutionary stages towards this.

Many other mammals since have developed similar strategies, today seen especially in goats, sheep and musk-oxen. But Discokeryx was the first and showed a very advanced level of adaptation to this way of combat. In other respects, it seems these animals lived by grazing in open habitats, and needed access to sources of water. They were not nearly as big as modern giraffes, standing about 1m at the shoulder. Its species name, xiezhi, refers to a mythical creature from Chinese tales that was like an ox or goat, with a single horn in the middle of its forehead.

Willem

13.01.25 Front Page

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