The current consensus is that only one type of horn, the ossicone, exists in the giraffe and that the central or median horn is both structurally and developmentally similar to the paired parietal horns. We have shown that the paired ossicones are composites of three structures: an innermost large frontoparietal boss base, the ossicone, and outermost layers of secondary bone growth. The median horn, to which we assign the name ‘giraffacone’, is a composite of only two structures: the median