Giraffe up. The calf emerges head and front legs first, having broken through the fetal membranes, and falls to the ground, severing the umbilical cord. The mother then grooms the newborn and helps it stand up. A newborn giraffe is tall. Within a few hours of birth, the calf can run around and is almost indistinguishable from a one-week-old. However, for the first 1–3 weeks, it spends most of its time hiding; its coat pattern providing camouflage. The ossicones, which have lain flat while it was in the womb, become erect within a few days. Mothers with calves will gather in
Giraffe deposits have been found in Libya. This animal was medium-sized, slender and antelope-like. "Giraffokeryx" appeared 15 mya in the Indian subcontinent and resembled an okapi or a small giraffe, and had a longer neck and similar ossicones. "Giraffokeryx" may have shared a clade with more massively built giraffids like "Sivatherium" and "Bramatherium". Giraffids like "Palaeotragus", "Shansitherium" and "Samotherium" appeared 14 mya and lived throughout Africa and Eurasia. These animals had bare ossicones and small cranial sinuses and were longer with broader skulls. "Paleotragus" resembled the okapi and may have been its ancestor. Others find that the okapi lineage diverged earlier,