How Many Bones In A Giraffe's Neck?
When my daughter was four years old we were visiting the San Diego Zoo. I was holding my daughter in my arms as we looked up at the giraffes. A docent (volunteer) tour guide came by with a small group on a tour and stood next to us. The tour guide explained to the group that a human has 7 bones in the neck. She asked how many bones do they think might be in a giraffe's neck? Without hesitating my daughter promptly answered the question correctly "seven!" The docent was shocked as no one apparently ever gets the answer correct and usual guesses ranged in the twenties, thirties and beyond. It helps to be the Chiropractor's daughter in this challenge, I guess.
The functioning of the neck is so critical to life that if one is born with 6 or 8 cervical bones they will surely not live! Infact, of all the mammals, only the super slow moving slouth can live if they are born with 6 or 8 cervical bones!
Heart rate, respiration, digestion, blood pressure and just about any function you can think of in the body is regulated, controlled and influenced by the cervical spine, our neck!
