Where do giraffes get their spots from?

Giraffes — like tigers, zebras and jaguars — are covered in patterns that are not just simply for show. The colour and texture of the spots help to regulate body temperature. They also signal to other animals that they’re part of the same species. The markings also act as camouflage, optically breaking up the body shapes of animals to hide them from predators.
It was thought that these patterns are random, or perhaps shaped by the environment. Recently, Derek Lee, a quantitative wildlife biologist at Penn State University in the USA, and his colleagues, studied the origin of these spots. They spent four years photographing the coats of 31 mother-and-baby giraffe sets in Tanzania from 2012 to 2016. They then used image analysis software to compare the patterns within each pair according to 11 traits, including spot shape, size and color.
Two traits in particular, the roundness of the spots and the smoothness of their borders, were strikingly similar between mothers and their calves — which the team interpreted as a sign that the spot patterns are inherited. Some such samples are shown in the pictures.
Another study by the same team showed that young giraffe calves with larger, irregularly shaped spots appeared to have the best chances of survival during the first season of life.
Adapted from //www.sciencenews.org