scientificillustration:

&ldquo;Course of the left vagus nerve and left recurrent laryngeal nerve in a human, a giraffe,&nbsp;and Supersaurus. The right recurrent laryngeal nerve passes caudal to the right subclavian&nbsp;artery rather than the aorta and ductus arteriosus, but otherwise its course is identical to that&nbsp;of the left.&rdquo;
&ldquo;The recurrent laryngeal nerve is an oft&ndash;cited example of &ldquo;unintelligent design&rdquo; in biology,&nbsp;especially in the giraffe. The nerve appears early in embryonic development, before the&nbsp;pharyngial and aortic arches are separated by the development of the neck. The recurrent&nbsp;course of the nerve from the brain, around the great vessels, to the larynx, is shared by all&nbsp;extant tetrapods. Therefore we may infer that the recurrent laryngeal nerve was present in&nbsp;extinct tetrapods, had the same developmental origin, and followed the same course. The&nbsp;longest&ndash;necked animals of all time were the extinct sauropod dinosaurs, some of which had&nbsp;necks 14 meters long. In these animals, the neurons that comprised the recurrent laryngeal&nbsp;nerve were at least 28 meters long. 