Laura D Bertola, Liam Quinn, Kristian Hanghøj, Genís Garcia-Erill, Malthe Sebro Rasmussen, Renzo F Balboa, Jonas Meisner, Thomas Bøggild, Xi Wang, Long Lin, Casia Nursyifa, Xiaodong Liu, Zilong Li, Mumbi Chege, Yoshan Moodley, Anna Brüniche-Olsen, Josiah Kuja, Mikkel Schubert, Morris Agaba, Cindy G Santander, Mikkel-Holger S Sinding, Vincent Muwanika, Charles Masembe, Hans R Siegismund, Ida Moltke, Anders Albrechtsen, Rasmus Heller
Strong genetic structure has prompted discussion regarding giraffe taxonomy,1 , 2 , 3 including a suggestion to split the giraffe into four species: Northern (Giraffa c. camelopardalis), Reticulated (G. c. reticulata), Masai (G. c. tippelskirchi), and Southern giraffes (G. c. giraffa).4 , 5 , 6 However, their evolutionary history is not yet fully resolved, as previous studies used a simple bifurcating model and did not explore the presence or extent of gene flow between lineages. We therefore inferred a model that incorporates various evolutionary processes to assess the drivers of contemporary giraffe diversity...
March 6, 2024: Current Biology: CB