Welcome to the last article in my little series on Inside Nature’s Giants (see part I, part II and part III first). The final, fourth episode looked at giraffes (or, specifically, Rothschild’s giraffe Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi, or G. rothschildi if you prefer). For me this was the most impressive episode; partly because they covered just about everything you could think of, and partly because I haven’t seen inside a giraffe before. Graham Mitchell was on-hand as their giraffe expert (is this the same Graham Mitchell who also publishes on crocodile farming?). They showed us the enormous, yellow nuchal ligament [see adjacent CG image, and dissection shown below. Images © Channel 4], the neck musculature, the lungs (again, very bizarre), the anatomy and role of the tongue, the enormous, phenomenally thick-walled heart, the tightly adhering leg skin, the dense lower limb bones, the vasculature associated with the skin blotches, the capillary [...]

Original post by Darren Naish none@example.com