Over at Living the Scientific Life, blogger GrrlScientist summarizes the new paper by UCLA's David Brown and his colleagues that delves into ancient questions of West African giraffe speciation, i.e., how many species are there? Taxonomists had settled on "one" (Giraffa camelopardalis) as the answer, but Brown et al. in BMC Biology used mitochondrial DNA and nuclear microsatellite loci DNA to demonstrate that there are at least six, and possibly as many as eleven, distinct species, instead of a series of subspecies.
And if you harbor any doubts about whether the holiday season is upon us, follow GrrlScientist's comments thread for a thorough analysis of how many giraffe necks, therefore, must have been protruding from the portholes of Noah's Ark.