Samotherium boissieri was a giraffid that lived from the mid-Miocene to early Pliocene, about 12-5 million years ago, ranging across what is now Southeastern Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Standing 2.3m tall at the shoulder (~7'6"), and with a total height of around 3-3.5m (9'10"-11'6"), it had long pointed ossicones and a neck that was halfway in both length and bone anatomy between those of its modern relatives the okapi and giraffe.
(But it wasn't actually a direct ancestor of modern giraffes, instead being an offshoot of the okapi lineage and most closely related to sivatheres.)
The shape of its snout and microwear on its teeth suggest that it was a seasonal mixed feeder, varying its diet between grazing and browsing at different times of year.
It would have also lived alongside another slightly larger species in the same genus, Samotherium major — but the two appear to have been ecologically partitioned, avoiding direct competition by each preferring slightly different habitats and diets. S. boissieri inhabited more open grasslands, while S. major lived in mixed woodland-grassland and was more of a grazing specialist.
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References:
Al Riaydh, Mohammed H., et al. "Taxonomic and biogeographic implications of Late Miocene-Pliocene Samotherium (Giraffidae) from As-Sahabi, Libya: morphometric and machine learning approaches." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (2026): e2638390. https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2026.2638390
Danowitz, Melinda, Rebecca Domalski, and Nikos Solounias. "The cervical anatomy of Samotherium, an intermediate-necked giraffid." Royal Society Open Science 2.11 (2015): 150521. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.150521
Marra, Antonella Cinzia. "Samotherium boissieri from the Late Miocene of Southern Italy." Life 15.6 (2025): 911. https://doi.org/10.3390/life15060911
Merceron, Gildas, Marc Colyn, and Denis Geraads. "Browsing and non-browsing extant and extinct giraffids: evidence from dental microwear textural analysis." Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 505 (2018): 128-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.05.036
Ríos, María, Israel M. Sánchez, and Jorge Morales. "A new giraffid (Mammalia, Ruminantia, Pecora) from the late Miocene of Spain, and the evolution of the sivathere-samothere lineage." PLoS One 12.11 (2017): e0185378. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185378
Solounias, Nikos, Mark Teaford, and Alan Walker. "Interpreting the diet of extinct ruminants: the case of a non-browsing giraffid." Paleobiology 14.3 (1988): 287-300. https://doi.org/10.1017/S009483730001201X
Solounias, Nikos, and Sonja MC Moelleken. "Dietary adaptation of some extinct ruminants determined by premaxillary shape." Journal of Mammalogy 74.4 (1993): 1059-1971. https://doi.org/10.2307/1382445
Wikipedia contributors. “Samotherium” Wikipedia, 17 May 2026, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samotherium
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