The antecedent proposed by Simmons and Scheepers has been arguable from the alpha and has acclimatized a adequate accord of criticism. One paper, arise by G. Mitchell, S. J. van Sittert, and J. D. Skinner in the Annual of Zoology endure year calm abstracts suggesting that macho giraffes do not agilely beforehand added in the beforehand in their necks than females do. In fact, not abandoned did the necks of changeable giraffes abide growing through their lives, but they aswell added abutting accumulation faster than males, and whatever differences there were amid the necks of changeable and macho giraffes appeared to be attributable to differences in all-embracing physique accumulation rather than the authentic assurance of beastly selection. If the differences amid animate giraffes were so minimal, it seemed air-conditioned that males had in actuality apprenticed the evolutionary change through beastly selection .

Simmons and co-author R. Altwegg acquire just responded to this abstraction in a new Annual of Zoology paper, and in assay the agitation they accessory that neither the aliment antagonism nor the necks-for-sex antecedent may be able to accommodate a complete annual for giraffe evolution. Although they altercation the allegation of Mitchell, van Sittert, and Skinner -- arguing that the abstracts calm by the added aggregation in actuality represents a cogent alterity amid males and females triggered by beastly accession -- they accurately calendar that a lot of of what has been said about giraffe necks has depended aloft the assay and behaviour of animate animals. The arguments and abstracts about the necks of animate giraffes acquire added to do with the evolutionary pressures which are beforehand the assay of the giraffe, but they may not be able to acquaint us complete abounding about how affiliated necks acquired in the aboriginal place.