Page 36 - Waterfall_Issue 2_Feb_2022

Waterfall Nature

stretchINg here is no doubt that, if the

the IMagINatIoN t giraffe were known only
through the discovery of
its fossilised neck bones, it
might well have been deemed to be
By James Clarke and Mary Broadley another bizarre creation of the weird
Jurassic Period – the era that produced
“There ain’t no such animal!” creatures with the most unlikely necks.
– overheard at Bronx zoo when an
elderly woman saw a giraffe for the first Just before Christmas, the American
time in her life. Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology,
at its annual meeting in Minneapolis,
“Taller than an elephant but revealed details of a newly-

not so thick” discovered long-necked dinosaur
that defies the imagination.
– definition of the giraffe in Samuel
Jonson’s 1775 Dictionary of the English Long-necked? Just two of its almost
Language. dustbin-sized vertebrae were the
length of an entire giraffe’s neck.

Fossil hunters now call it ‘Supersaurus’
– a name invented by a fellow
journalist reporting on the event.
This new dinosaur is the longest
four-legged creature that has ever
lived. It weighed around 60 tons
and was at least 40m in length.

The first of its bones were discovered
in the 1970s when they were thought
to be the remains of two dinosaurs.
Now palaeontologists believe
they belonged to one animal.

Try to imagine this creature walking
among city traffic, dwarfing double-
decker buses, haplessly squashing
cars underfoot and stretching to
press its nose up against office
windows five storeys high.

Which brings me back to earth . . . and
to our comparatively dainty giraffe.

The good news is that the giraffe, the
world’s tallest living mammal, has
strengthened its numbers over the
last few years. It is still ‘vulnerable’
according to the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN)
Red List. The list categorises animals
according to their likelihood to become
extinct. There are nine categories –
Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least
Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable,
South Africa’s giraffe
Endangered, Critically Endangered,

34 Waterfall Issue 2 2022