Several giraffes drinking water at a waterhole near the camp Savute Elephant Camp by Orient Express in Botswna, in the Chobe National Park. The giraffe is one of the two living species of Giraffe family, along with the okapi. The family was very broad, with many species. The giraffes evolve ramoneador a large mammal, about three meters and looking antelope that lived in Europe and Asia makes between 30 and 50 million years. The oldest known jiráfido is Climacoceras, like deer, with horns like the giraffe. Emergence early Miocene. Examples include the genera late Palaeotragus and Samotherium, the middle Miocene. Both were of considerable height on the cross, had developed a simple and unbranched antler like modern giraffes, but still had relatively short neck. Comparison jiráfidos African Miocene: Palaeotragus (the highest) and Climacoceras (the lowest). From the late Pliocene, the variety of jiráfidos fell sharply, to be only the two species referred to above. The genre of the modern giraffe evolved during the Pliocene, and includes other long-necked species, such as Giraffa jumae that survives today. Alan Turner proposes in his book Evolving Eden (2004), that the ancestors of the giraffe would be dark with pale spots, and those spots went to have a way estellada before forming the lattice model found today. The modern species Giraffa camelopardalis appeared during the Pleistocene million years ago. The evolution of the length of the neck of the giraffe has been the subject of much debate. The classic explanation is that the neck is lengthened to reach higher vegetation that was not accessible to other herbivores, giraffes giving a competitive advantage. However, an alternative theory proposes that evolve as secondary sexual character, giving males an advantage to the "necking" to establish dominance and access to receptive females. This theory is based on that giraffes eat low shrub often, and that the neck of the males is significantly longer than that of females. However, this theory is not universally accepted, and recent studies have questioned, supporting the classical explanation