#Samotherium major

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression - Ep 35 - If a giraffe wore a bow tie...?

K: Hi this is Dir en grey's Kaoru, with this week's episode of 'The Freedom of Expression'. Joe san, Tasai san, welcome. Joe san, whats going on with that mask?

J: This? It's good. It gets me in a supportive mood. If I wear this, if everyone wears these, who knows? Hanshin might move up? Miraculously from second place?

K: So if I wore one...

J: Yeah!

K: But because Im not wearning one..?

J: Its because you're not wearing one! Thats it!

T: Yeah.

Kami: No, no, its impossible.

J: Is it?

Kami: Yes, it is!

K: Yeah, I think its probably impossible.

Kami: Lets just get on with the show.

J: Ah, I see. Ok.

K: Ok, Joe...

K: Yes, today's news is this. If a giraffe wore a bow tie, would it wear it at the top or the bottom of the neck? There are many problems in the world that need discussing, but this may be a very important discussion to us. It was reported by the U.S. edition of the Huffington Post. The question was posted on Twitter on the 14th of September, 'If a giraffe wore a bow tie, would it wear it at the top or the bottom?', and lots of people have answered it. Well, we can't show you the images, but just to explain it simply, can I show my drawing?

K: Oh, already?

J: *showing his drawing* Well, Im not sure if it looks like a giraffe...

K: No, it does look like a giraffe.

J: Does it?

K: Yes.

J: Is it ok? Well, according to the Huff post article, a giraffe would wear a bow tie either here (*points to top of the neck*), or here (*points to bottom of neck*)

K: Either nearer to the face, or nearer to the body?

J: Yep. People have a lot of thoughts on the correct way a giraffe should wear a bow tie, and many people have been writing many reasons for their answers. For example, people who think it should be at the bottom say that if the giraffe tied the bow tie himself, his front legs would only reach up that far up. And as for the opinion of small kids, they say that humans wear bow ties at the top of their neck, so giraffes should too. Many different age groups have many different reasons for where the bow tie should go. Humans don't have a lot of choice because our necks are short, but its like, what do you think as for a giraffe with a long neck?

K: Hmm.

J: So we might as well each have a go at drawing a bow tie on a giraffe, and we'll give our reasons for where we put it.

T: Shall we have a go? Its pretty difficult.

K: Um, we only put a bow tie on it, right?

J: Yeh, only a bow tie.

K: Not with a shirt, or a suit or anything?

J: No

K: You put a bow tie with a shirt though usually, don't you?

J: Yeh, you do.

K: You don't often tie it straight onto your neck, do you?

J: You don't, right.

T: Yeah.

K: So, if you had a shirt...well, maybe im saying too much.

J: Yeah...

T: Lets just draw first.

J: Yeah, lets do the drawing first. You can use your ideas in your drawing...Hm, where to put it...

T: Its quite difficult.

J: Haha, Tasai's giraffe is kinda impressive anyway.

K: Its a Tokyo Sports-style giraffe, right?

J: Haha, yeah.

K: Its quite mysterious.

J: Haha, it is. ???*1 Even this shows our differences. I think mine's ok compared to Tasai's, haha....But where should it go...?

T: Its difficult, isn't it?

J: Kami isn't here so he can't draw one, but Kami, draw one in your mind. We'll ask you too.

Kami: Ok.

K: Is Kami artistic, I wonder?

J: Can you draw, Kami?

Kami: No, I can't draw at all. Its shocking.

J, K, T: Ahh.

J: Ok, shall we start with Tasai?

K: Shoudn't I go first?

J: I thought we could end with you?

K: Really? Im not gonna win to him, haha *points to Tasai*

J: If its winning or losing based on first impressions, ???*2

K: Ok, I chose bottom.

J: Oh, the bottom?

T: You're in the 'bottom of the neck' club? Why? What are your feelings?

K: If its too near the face, the balance will be off.

T: Ah, I see.

J: It looks stylish. Does it make the neck look long?

K: No, well, its long anyway, haha.

J: Ah, it doesn't make it look long, it just is long.

K: Well, I mean, it could also wear it half way up.

J: Ah, I see.

K: I just thought its probably best not to have it too near the face.

J: Ah, I see. Well, as for me, the bow tie looks terrible, but..

T: Is that a bow tie? It looks more like a stick! It looks like its wearing a dumbell on its neck!

J: It does look like a dumbell, but my idea was to put it at the top.

K: Is that a collar? haha

J: It ended up looking kinda like a collar. I have the image of it being closer to the top. If its at the bottom, its close to the body, but I feel like a tie should be on the throat. Where is the throat on a giraffe??

T: Yeh..

K: Hmm, yeh. Im not sure.

J: I don't know either, but I put the bow tie at the top.

T: I see.

J: Ok, Tasai..

T: Well...(*holds up his drawing*) I put a very big bow tie on the neck.

J, K: Haha.

T: At the top of the neck.

J: Ah, at the top?

K: Where is that animal from? haha

Kami: Its pretty good.

J: Look at the eyes!

K: Haha

Kami: You're good at drawing.

T: Can you see it Kami?

Kami: Yep, I can, I can.

K: The artistry...

J: Should we make this into a tshirt?

T: Hahaha.

K: This would be pretty good on a tshirt.

J: It would, right?! You know that alien thing by the artist Daniel Johnston? Its like that.

T: Really, wow! That kind of highly acclaimed work?

J: It could go on a tote bag!

T, J: Hahaha

Kami: Isn't the neck on this giraffe a bit short though?

T: Well, its because the bow tie is so big, the neck looks short.

K: No, its the face that makes the neck look short.

Kami: The face is too big..

T: There's a reason for the bow tie. If you put a big one here, it really stands out. It just screams, 'Lets have a party on the savannah!'

J: Ah, I see. Its for a party?

T: Yeh, this big one is for parties, and when he's trying to seduce a woman, he has this more subdued one at the bottom..

K: This depends a lot on the circumstances!

T: And a woman will see this small bow tie, and think, 'Ah, he's so stylish'.

J, K: Hahaha

T: So this small one is to attract the ladies.

J: I see.

T: The big one has more personality.

J: Like, 'Its me!'

T: Yeah, like 'Im here! Number 1 in the savannah!'

J: And the little one is for the women?

T: Yeah, at night he'll take off the big one, and just wear the small one...and while they're having drinks, she'll think, 'Oh, how stylish'.

J: I think Tasai's picture has a big impact, right?

K: Yeah, its good.

J: I feel like this is the first time I've seen a drawing of yours, Tasai. Even after doing this show for so long...

T: Yeah..it shows my personality.

J: Ahh, its great.

K: So, it seems like wearing it at the top is common.

J: At the moment, yeh. What about Kami?

Kami: I think bottom.

J: Ohh, bottom? Same as Kaoru.

Kami: It seems like it would get in the way if it was at the top.

T: Ahh, yeh. In a practical sense.

Kami: It wouldn't be nice getting his neck caught on something. If it was a regular tie, it would strangle him, wouldn't it?

T: Yeh, thats right.

J: Well, yeh.

Kami: So I think bottom is better.

T: Well, a bow tie is pointless to start with, so I thought, like ultra flashy.

Kami: Its because a giraffe's neck is long, as to why people are worrying about this, right?

J: Yeah.

Kami: So if it were an elephant, for example..It would be, 'Where would you put a nose piercing?'

T: Where would it go? Wouldn't it just be at the hole?

K: Well, it would have to be if it was a ring type. It would get really clogged up if it was further up *3

J: Haha, agh it would! So, how about this? Could people write comments on youtube?

T: Oh, like 'My idea is.....'. But isn't this better? (*Points to his own paper*) Its loud.

K: It looks kinda childish to me. At the bottom looks more mature.

J, T: Ah, yeh.

Kami: It would get dirty when he eats.

T: Haha

Kami: If he spilled his food....at the top.

J: Well, yeh.

K: Well it would get dirty at both ends in that case, haha.

T: You're right, it does look childish at the top.

J: Well, it is a hot topic on twitter.

T: I wonder if any conclusion has been made about this? Im interested.

J: Yeah. Well, I read a while ago about this 'missing link'. So, a giraffe's neck is long, right? And they havn't discovered any animal that had just a medium length neck, have they?

K, T: Ahh

J: So according to the theory of evolution, the neck should have become longer over time, bit by bit. But a missing link animal with just a medium length neck hasn't been discovered. So one explanation is the neck became long all of a sudden.

T: Ehh?

J: Normally, it should get longer bit by bit, right? By trying to reach food higher up. If the food lower down is all gone, and there is a lot of competition, the neck should have grown longer to reach food higher up. But that would mean reaching higher places little by little. So there should be some animal with a partially grown neck according to evolution, but it doesnt seem like there is. So some people are saying it might have changed all of a sudden.

Kami: There are things like that for elephants and stuff, aren't there? With partially grown trunks. 

J: Well, there probably isn't, right? I don't think there are any elephant fossils like that.

K: But there was so many different types of animals alive in the past, right?

J: Yeah

K: Unrecognizable ones, looking like they came out of manga.

J: Yeh yeh yeh. So, from those we have left the ones that were able to adapt to their environment. And its said that giraffes developed their long neck trying to eat food from the top of trees, due to competition with other animals.

T: It looks that way, but after what you just said, im not sure now.

J: Its interesting. Like, we don't know if it was a sudden change caused by a virus. Like now we have coronavirus. Did a new creature emerge from that kind of situation?

T: Joe, you know a lot.

J: No no no.

Kami: I have the feeling it was made by a god.

K: But not this one, right?

Kami: No, I can't make anything. Nothing at all, at best I can talk. My talk isn't worth anything recently either. 

J: But god is said to be the creator, right?

Kami: Yeh, thats a more serious god.

J: Don't you have anything?

Kami: No, nothing.

T: I feel kinda sorry for Kami.

K: Yeah, me too. Born with the title 'Kami/god', and he can't do anything..

Kami: I have no abilities at all.

K: Ok, well, lets end here this week. Please subscribe. Thank you very much.

Kami: Please dooo.

J, T: Hahaha

*1, 2 Couldn't catch.

*3 Not entirely sure here.

[synapsidgirl]

I think I finished the giraffes. I’m not sure, I may tweak them a bit yet, but there won’t be any major changes (unless I get my hands on any good references that will show me where I made mistakes).

They’re sort of to scale: sort of, because in most cases it’s impossible to find good references, and, as I mentioned earlier, finding good info on sizes is also difficult. The best I could find for Bramatherium was: “somewhat smaller than Sivatherium.“, and for Shansitherium, it was “smaller, with longer, more gracile* skull than Sivatherium.“ And Smatoherium was “about the size of modern bull moose” (or elk, if you’re in the UK), but it had “1m long neck“, so I’m a bit more confident with Samotherium size.

Also to keep in mind: scrappy reference material: For Bohlinia, I literally had a piece of skull and the length of metetarsal, Palaotragus is also based only on a piece of skull, with modified Okapi skeleton for the rest of the body. The same with Giraffokeryx. Though in Palaeotragus case I also had the length of metatarsus to help with scaling. For Giraffokeryx the size is based on the skull length. At least I had a full skeletal reconstruction for Helladotherium, and with metatarsus length I’m quite confident, that one is accurate and to scale.

Shansitherium is based on several photos of its skeleton, but they were all distorted to some degree. I did my best to combine those, and get the proportions right, but there’s a possibility I made mistakes along the way.

Honestly, trying to find good references on extinct synapsids (whether mammalian or not), apart from the few “superstars“ is ridiculous. And even in cases of seemingly well known species, the lack of good references can be surprising.

That was supposed to be a fairly quick painting, but... it wasn’t. I also wasn’t sure how may extant giraffes to include here. Because some sources claim there’s only one, others that there are six, and others still that there are eight species. I got  confused about which of those views to follow, so decided to stick with the traditional one species.

I’ll be adding this to me shop at some point, once I’m sure there’s no more tweaks to make.

*huh, my browser doesn’t know that word.