Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science, University of Padova, viale dell'Università 16, Legnaro (PD), 35020, Italy.
Anat Rec (Hoboken). 2017 Aug;300(8):1502-1511. doi: 10.1002/ar.23593. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
The anatomy of the giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis Linnaeus, 1758) has been poorly studied, except for the circulatory system. In particular, only a handful of studies have concerned the brain of this species since the first description in 1839. Accordingly, only a very few articles discussing encephalization mentioned the giraffe or used it in their calculations. In this article, we performed a thorough examination of the literature including old and grey, regarding the central nervous system of the giraffe. Furthermore, we examined the brain of 3 giraffes, and calculated the encephalization quotient (EQ) of the species, based on our own data and the values found in the literature. We also revised the pre-existing literature and re-mapped the main sulci based on current comparative interpretation and anatomical nomenclature. Our results were compared to those of other selected significant mammals. The mean brain weight was of 719.9 ± 12.5 g. Our data indicate that the EQ of the giraffe is 0.64 and matches that of the typical ungulate, despite having the largest brain among terrestrial Cetartiodactyla. This emphasizes that the giraffe is a highly specialized mammal, within the limitations of its clad. Anat Rec, 300:1502-1511, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
长颈鹿（Giraffa camelopardalis Linnaeus, 1758）的解剖结构除了循环系统外，研究得很少。特别是，自 1839 年首次描述以来，仅有少数研究涉及该物种的大脑。因此，只有极少数讨论脑化的文章提到了长颈鹿，或在其计算中使用了长颈鹿。在本文中，我们彻底检查了文献，包括旧的和灰色的，涉及长颈鹿的中枢神经系统。此外，我们检查了 3 只长颈鹿的大脑，并根据我们自己的数据和文献中发现的值计算了该物种的脑化商（EQ）。我们还修订了现有的文献，并根据当前的比较解释和解剖学命名法重新绘制了主要脑回。我们的结果与其他选定的重要哺乳动物进行了比较。平均脑重为 719.9 ± 12.5 g。我们的数据表明，长颈鹿的 EQ 为 0.64，与典型的有蹄类动物相匹配，尽管其大脑是陆地有蹄类动物中最大的。这强调了长颈鹿是一种高度特化的哺乳动物，在其进化枝的限制内。解剖学记录，300：1502-1511，2017。©2017 Wiley Periodicals，Inc.
