The source of the ubiquitous textbook icon of giraffe
neck evolution is unknown. Gould traced it back to Henry
Fairfield Osborn’s book, The Origin and Evolution of Life.
19
Osborn’s inaccurate account would have us believe that
Lamarck attributed the neck lengthening to the inheritance
of bodily modifications as a result of stretching its
neck for food, while Darwin attributed it to the constant
‘selection of individuals and races which were born with
the longest necks’.20 Osborn concluded that ‘Darwin was
probably right’.