# Why do giraffe's have pointy nobbly things on thier heads? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149 "2004-07-14T21:41:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dyoungone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@dyoungone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dyoungone)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/1 "2004-07-14T21:41:25Z")
A question that has bothered me for a long while. By that I mean, my cousin,every copule of months ask’s that question. I was once told it was for head butting. But as my cousin and myself don’t really think this is true. Could someone please shed some ligtht on this! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/2 "2004-07-14T21:58:39Z")
The knobby things on a giraffes head are kind of like horns, and probably evolved from horns. Giraffes are the only surviving camel that has retained the horns, they have been lost in the standard camels and llama type things. Giraffes have horns for pretty much the same reason most ungulates have horns, they se them for fighting one another. Male giraffes fight by using their heads like wrecking balls, swinging them on the end of those long necks to build up steam and slamming them into opponents. The horns just add a little extra punch. So in one sense they are used for headbutting, but it’s an interesting kind of headbutt. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/3 "2004-07-14T22:14:59Z")
Giraffes (family Giraffidae) are not camels (family Camelidae, including also llamas, guanacos, alpacas, and vicunas), and are not particularly closely related to them, being in a different suborder of the [Artiodactyla](http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla.html), the Ruminantia (along with deer, antelopes, cattle, etc.), the camels being in the suborder Tylopoda. The “horns” are called ossicones. Some males giraffes can have up to five such bony projections on the skull (two pairs plus a central one). The only other member of the Giraffe family is the Okapi of central African rainforests. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/4 "2004-07-14T22:53:46Z")
[This site](http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Life_on_Earth&contgroup=) is a bit clumsy to use, but it’s got a very comprehensive listing of life forms and their inter-relatedness. And [here are the giraffes!](http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Artiodactyla&contgroup=Eutheria) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2004, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/5 "2004-07-14T23:48:52Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > The only other member of the Giraffe family is the Okapi of central African rainforests. [The Okapi is the only mammal that can clean its ears with its tongue.](http://www.danger-island.com/true/mokapi/okapi.html) ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/6 "2004-07-15T00:08:44Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > [The Okapi is the only mammal that can clean its ears with its tongue.](http://www.danger-island.com/true/mokapi/okapi.html) KISS lead Gene Simmons can, also. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/7 "2004-07-15T01:42:43Z")
The ossicones are, IIRC, morphologically and developmentally identical to the horn cores of other ungulates such as cows and sheep. The giraffes don’t grow the keratin sheath. ---
**Author:** ![Kaotic\_Newtral](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@Kaotic\_Newtral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaotic_Newtral)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/8 "2004-07-15T02:11:53Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Giraffes (family Giraffidae) are not camels (family Camelidae, including also llamas, guanacos, alpacas, and vicunas), and are not particularly closely related to them, being in a different suborder of the [Artiodactyla](http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla.html), the Ruminantia (along with deer, antelopes, cattle, etc.), the camels being in the suborder Tylopoda. > > The “horns” are called ossicones. Some males giraffes can have up to five such bony projections on the skull (two pairs plus a central one). > > The only other member of the Giraffe family is the Okapi of central African rainforests. That’s an awesome answer Colibri. I couldn’t figure out how giraffes were related to camels as Blake advised. I was searching for 20 minutes! I thought I was going crazy. -K ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/9 "2004-07-15T02:15:39Z")
They use those horns to catch the stray apostropes. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/10 "2004-07-15T02:16:48Z")
Damn, I sure wish I just spelled ‘apostrophes’ correctly. I just grew another horn. Ouch. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/11 "2004-07-15T02:31:32Z")
As far as I am aware, no fossil camels had horns. However, there were some in North America that evolved long necks like giraffes, such as [_Oxydactylus_](http://homepage1.nifty.com/dromedarius/intro/oxidac.html) Some fossil relatives of the giraffe had rather sizeable “horns,” notably [_Sivatherium_](http://www.avph.hpg.ig.com.br/jpg/sivatherium.jpg) and [_Giraffokeryx punjabiensis_](http://www.avph.hpg.ig.com.br/sivatheriumdechifre.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-giraffes-have-pointy-nobbly-things-on-thier-heads/255149/12 "2004-07-15T02:54:42Z")
In a trivia note, the American pronghorn (often called “pronghorn antelope,” although it’s not a “true antelope”) has no particularly closely related artiodactyl cousins–but there is some belief now that its clos_est_ relative might be the giraffe!