Samotherium 2015 study found that "Samotherium" had a neck intermediate in length between the giraffe and the okapi, judging from examination of specimens of "S. major" from Greece. Samotherium Samotherium ("beast of Samos") is an extinct genus of Giraffidae from the Miocene and Pliocene of Eurasia and Africa. "Samotherium" had two ossicones on its head, and long legs. The ossicones usually pointed upward, and were curved backwards, with males having larger, more curved ossicones, though, in the Chinese species, "S. sinense", the straight ossicones point laterally, not upwards. The genus is closely related to "Shansitherium". According to biologist Richard Ellis and
Marius (giraffe) Marius (giraffe) Marius (6 February 2012 – 9 February 2014) was a young male giraffe living at Copenhagen Zoo. Though healthy, he was genetically unsuitable for future breeding, as his genes were overrepresented in the captive population, so it was decided by the zoo authorities to kill him. Despite several offers to adopt Marius, which went against zoo policy of selling to private owners, and an online petition to save him, he was killed on 9 February 2014. His body was then dissected and necropsied in a public educational class and he was then fed to the zoo's lions. The