Billy Ott, age 13, of Fairlea, West Virginia, for his question

Why is the okapi called a living fossil?

A fossil is the remains of something which lived in the dim, distant past. Fossilized bones, teeth and shells tell us of animals who lived million of years ago. Some, like the dinosaurs, perished from the earth. Only their fossilized bones tell us that they ever existed. Some, like Eohippus, the spaniel‑sized dawn‑horses left children who changed and improved themselves. Experts can recognize the fossil stages and so trace back the horse's family tree. The little fossil ancestors no longer exists, but his descendants survive in the noble, modern horses

The fossil ancestor of the skyscraper giraffe dates back 15 million years. We call him palaetragine and he looks rather like a small‑headed mule. This fossil ancestor roamed over Europe and Asia. His food was leaves, munched from high branches. Hence, his tall children were more likely to survive than the shorter ones, for they could reach enough suitable food. The tall ones were also more likely to live and have tall children like themselves. In thousands of generations the shorties became weeded out. The descendants of palaetragine were all skyscrapers with long necks and long logs ‑ or so we thought. These were the giraffes, well suited for munching leaves from the acacia trees that grew across the plains of Africa..

Sixty years ago, the naturalists thought that all the sizeable animals of Africa had been listed. But the little brown pygmies told of a strange animal who lived deep in their dark jungles. Henry Stanley, the American who searched for the dedicated Dr. Livingstone, reported this rumor. People became interested. The Pygmies then produced some scraps of skin and finally a whole skin and two skulls to prove that this shy creature existed.

This evidence was proof enough that an unknown animal did live in the jungle. He was discovered and named the okapi. The timid fellow looked like a small‑headed mule and it was obvious to the experts that he was a relative of the giraffe.. In fact, he seemed to be a copy of that mule‑sized fossil ancestor of the giraffe.

Some of the children of old palaetragine, it seems, had gone to live in the deep rain forests. They had no need to reach high for rich tree foliage and so tallness was not important. The children grew up to look just like their parents. Out on the plains only the tall cousins could survive, for only they could reach enough food for themselves.

Through countless generations, the giraffes on the plain became skycrapers, The okapi cousins in the forests remained like palaetragine, who was the ancestor of both the giraffe and tho okapi. The okapi was indeed a living; copy of his ancestor and so people called him a living fossil.

Since the discovery, okapis have been shipped to zoos around the world. The living fossil is a gentle creature and very handsome. His velvety coat is rich chocolate brown, his legs are banded with rows of cream colored garters and end in dainty hoofs. The gentle face is also cream colored and the head crowned with long slender ears and a pair of velvety horns, His bones and maybe his coat are living copies of those fossil ancestors who roamed over Europe and Asia 15 million years in the past.