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Because in the middle ages hardly anyone ever saw an elephant.

• diogenescynic 10y ago
  Exactly, even the taxidermy was awful because hardly anyone saw these animals in person: http://hyperallergic.com/307949/terrible-taxidermy-from-when-exotic-animals-were-unknown-in-the-west/ http://hyperallergic.com/307949/terrible-taxidermy-from-when...
• dsp1234 10y ago
  The subtitle of article is, "Maybe not just because they didn't know what elephants looked like."
  • deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
• DannyB2 10y ago
  Fewer people were able to tune to Animal Planet back then and see for themselves what an elephant looked like.
• Symbiote 10y ago
  At the end of the article, it says even people who'd seen an elephant -- there was one in London -- didn't necessarily draw it correctly.