9 ms·
The Siberian unicorn lived at the same time as modern humans (2018)
- Grakel 5y agoIf it's not a horse, it's not a unicorn.
- steve_adams_86 5y agoAccording to Wikipedia: “Its legs were longer than those of other rhinos and were adapted for galloping, giving it a horse-like gait.” Close enough for me!
- bingidingi 5y agoas far as we know unicorns could be more closely related to rhinos
- perl4ever 5y agoI thought "unicorns" were narwhals.
- oleganza 5y agoNarwhals have two left+right tusks, not horns. Only one is obnoxiously long, the other one is usually short.
- omgtehlion 5y agoLike an underwater unicorn They've got a kick-ass facial horn They're the Jedi of the sea They stop Cthulhu eating ye
- prawn 5y agoRead something the other day suggesting goats? Cloven hooves and a goatee?
- SideburnsOfDoom 5y agoIt was here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27509346 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27509346 > In heraldry, a unicorn is often depicted as a horse with a goat's cloven hooves and beard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn#Heraldry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn#Heraldry BTW, I highly recommend those tapestries in the Musee Moyenage - the Museum of The Middle Ages, if you're visiting Paris and are into medieval stuff. https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/collection/oeuvre/la-dame-a-la-licorne.html https://www.musee-moyenage.fr/collection/oeuvre/la-dame-a-la...
- mellavora 5y agomakes me think of the "save the chubby unicorn" t-shirts with a picture of a rhino
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoIf it's a unicorn, its not a horse
- h2odragon 5y ago"looks like a horse" or "has the right kind of horn" ... these are obviously not what makes or breaks "is this a unicorn?". To answer the question correctly, we're gonna have to create some live ones and feed them virgins.
- AbrahamParangi 5y agoI wonder why the default assumption in archaeology of pleistocene megafauna so often is "it is unlikely that they were hunted into extinction". It seems to me that ecological pressure from Humans is the parsimonious explanation. Two recent examples: the last major landmasses to be settled by humans were Madagascar and New Zealand. These islands were home to very unique megafauna such as Haast's Eagle, the Elephant Bird, the Moa, Giant Tortoises, a species of Hippo, Crocodiles, Lemurs larger than a human, and others. All went extinct within several hundred years of human arrival.
- AlotOfReading 5y agoIt pretty much is the default assumption, but like most complex phenomena it tends to be multifactorial. I'd recommend the quaternary extinction page on wiki for a broad sketch of general arguments. They basically revolve around the timings (which in many cases pre- or post-date human arrival) and differential impact. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaternary_extinction
- nl 5y agoDuring this period there was a much lower population of humans.
- londons_explore 5y agoAll it takes is some tribal chief to say "the person with the most rhino horns on their armour is the strongest", and suddenly even a small group of practiced hunters can quickly kill all the rhino...
- animal531 5y agoBut at that time humans were on foot and probably didn't range that far in general.
- eggsmediumrare 5y ago
- slacktide 5y agoNo unicorn pictures in TFA. Skip it.
- bawolff 5y agoThere is an artist's rendering of the extinct animal that this article is about, in TFA
- fractallyte 5y agoFor those posters who declare, "It's not a unicorn!", look up the etymology of the word. It's from Latin; basically, 'uni' means 'one', 'cornus' means 'horn'. 'One horn'. Is that clear enough?
- amelius 5y agoThat's a "pars pro toto". The question is: what did the original users of the term mean by it?
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 5y agoIIRC, the best historical evidence is that the original use of “unicorn” referred to the rhinoceros, though fuzzy understandings of written descriptions led European readers to imagine something like the current popular image. So, the Siberian unicorn, being a member of the rhinoceros family, is probably as legitimately a “unicorn” as anything is.
- slipframe 5y agoFrom what I understand, the earliest attestation to unicorns is depictions of one-horned animals on seals from the Indus Valley Civilization. It is possible these were actually depictions of aurochs facing sideways, such that only one horn of the auroch was visible. These depictions were misinterpreted by ancient Greeks, who believed unicorns existed in India. The myth grows from there, at times reinforced by accounts of rhinos and 'horns' from narwhals. Sideways depiction of an auroch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs#/media/File:Aurochs_skeletal.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs#/media/File:Aurochs_sk... Indus Valley Civilization seal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn#/media/File:Indus_civilisation_seal_unicorn_at_Indian_Museum,_Kolkata.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn#/media/File:Indus_civi... On that 'unicorn' seal, there seems to be something hanging from the belly of the animal. That looks very similar to the anatomy of male cattle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle#/media/File:Arouquesa2.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle#/media/File:Arouquesa2....
- poundofshrimp 5y ago> While no horn has ever been found it is thought that the large boss on the head supported one An almost complete skeleton found, based on the picture. Seems strange the horn is missing.
- dragonwriter 5y agoRhinoceros horns are keratin, like hair and fingernails, not bone. Its not really surprising that its missing despite the skeleton being intact.