Fossilized skull reveals unicorns are real


Unicorns once roamed the Earth.

At least a long-extinct mammal that had a single horn growing from its skull did.

The Siberian unicorn more resembled a rhino than a horse and was thought to have been wiped out around 350,000 years ago.

However, researchers discovered a well-preserved skull that reveals the more than 6-foot-tall animal lived until about 29,000 years ago.

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The find was made in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. The research was published in the American Journal of Applied Sciences. Scientists now are trying to piece together how this version of the animal survived so much longer.

"Most likely, the south of Western Siberia was a refúgium, where this rhino persevered the longest in comparison with the rest of its range," Andrey Shpanski, a researcher on the team, told Phys.org. "There is another possibility that it could migrate and dwell for a while in the more southern areas."

In addition to its height, the animal known scientifically as Elasmotheriaum sibiricum, weighed about 4 tons. Making it sized more like a mammoth than a horse.