Could this Sumerian statue depict an ancient extinct giraffe?
For decades, paleontologists have agonized over a strange Sumerian statue found in central Iraq. The figurine depicts a mammal that some researchers suspect could be a suriving specimen of the ancient giraffe, Sivatherium. At Tetrapod Zoology, Darren Naish gives an overview of this seven-decade-plus controversy: Sivatherium was a large, short-necked giraffid, originally described for S.…
