What phylum do giraffes belong to?

Answer 1

Giraffes are mammals - animals with hair or fur which produce milk to feed the young. So they belong to the class Mammalia. Mammals are vertebrates - animals with a backbone. Thsy belong to the sub-phylum Vertebrata. Vertebrates are chordates - animals with "gill slits" at some time during their development and a supporting rod called a notocord. In mammals the "gill slits" only appear temporarily in the embryo. The notocord is reprsented by the intervertebral discs between the vertebrae in the backbone. All this means that giraffes (and all other mammals and vertebrates) belong to the phylum Chordata. For more information see: http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/chordata/chordata.html http://www.pbs.org/kcet/shapeoflife/animals/chordates.html