Yes, unicorns are real!
Some call it the rhino with a really big horn, others the ‘Siberian unicorn.’ Either way, it was believed the Elasmotherium sibiricum, a mammal now extinct, died out more 350,000 years ago. Now, researchers at Tomsk State University (TSU) have discovered a fossilized skull in Kazakhstan that proves this unicorn species still roamed the earth 29,000 years ago.
Based on their analysis and radiocarbon dating, it seems that E. sibiricum was around for much longer than scientists had previously thought. The skull also suggests that the unicorn creature may have been roaming the earth at the same time as early humans, who evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago.
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The fossilized skull was found near Kozhamzhar, a village in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. The skull was well preserved, Andrey Shpanski, a paleontologist at TSU stated in a media release.
"Most likely, it was a very large male of very large individual age (teeth not preserved).” Shpanski said, “The dimensions of this rhino are the biggest of those described in the literature, and the proportions are typical."
The question that intrigues the team of researchers now is how did the recently discovered ‘Siberian unicorn’ manage to survive for so much longer than those of the same species that died out hundreds of thousands of years earlier?
"Most likely, the south of Western Siberia was a refúgium, where this rhino persevered the longest in comparison with the rest of its range," Shpanski said. "There is another possibility that it could migrate and dwell for a while in the more southern areas."
The team of researchers hope that this recent discovery will help them understand how the environment affected the extinction of the E. sibiricum, and how some of these ‘Siberian unicorns’ were able to survive for much longer than previously thought.
The findings were published in the American Journal of Applied Sciences.
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