What animal did the Giraffe descend from?

Question

What animal did the giraffe descend from?

Answer 1

Interesting question.
The most recent phylogenetic analyses of Artiodactyls (even-hoofed mammals) place the Giraffids (giraffe and okapi) as sister group to the North American pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) - see this 2005 article:
http://141.40.125.5:8080/WWW/Homepages/Bininda-Emonds/Publications/CetartioST.pdf
(but note that not all analyses support these relationships)

In turn, giraffids+pronghorn are more closely related to the cervids (deer), and bovids (gazelles, bison, cattle species).
Thus, the ancestor of the giraffids may be reconstructed as an even-hoofed herbivore with generalized features (and no long neck).

Although the family Giraffidae is now represented by only the 2 abovementioned species, it was much more diverse in the past, and several fossil giraffes are known (see http://www.mnhn.fr/museum/front/medias/publication/3302_g04n4a5.pdf )
The fossil taxa that are closest to the living species (Giraffa camelopardalis) are Honanotherium and Bohlinia. Honanotherium was intermediate between the first short-necked forms and the modern giraffes.
Here's a reconstruction of one of these ancestral giraffes:
http://www.girafamania.com.br/primitiva/honanotherium.jpg

Answer 2

The giraffe is related to deer and cattle, but is placed in a separate family, the Giraffidae, consisting only of the giraffe and its closest relative, the okapi.

Answer 3

The giraffe was created by God just like all the other animals.

Answer 4

I think deers and other ominivore animal

Answer 5

this is a good question, seriously. i've always wondered myself.