It is assumed that the primitive giraffe
was a fast, agile animal similar to the modern
forest-dwelling okapi, which is a rather large
artiodactyl about 1.6 m at the shoulder.38 The
only extant giraffid other than the giraffe, is
the rare okapi. It is totally restricted to central
Africa where it lives deep in the rain forest. It
has a long neck and forelegs and many deerlike
traits, and is assumed to be very similar
to the extinct Palaeotragus.39 Its existence
was only confirmed in 1901, at which time
the claim was made that it is the ‘last and only
large mammal to escape the notice of science
until the twentieth century’ (a claim disproven
many times since then).