Unicorns are real

Unicorns, the "mythical" animals found in folklore all over the medieval world that have leeched into popular culture today. The vast majority of people know that these are just a legend, something that doesn't exist and never did exist. I'm here to tell you why you're wrong, unicorns may not be real anymore but once upon a time, unicorns frolicked in fields all over Eurasia and may have even been in contact with our distant ancestors...


Ladies and gentlemen, I present... The unicorn:

Behold, the unicorn in all its glory.

Well these days we like to refer to them as Elasmotherium, the "thin plate beast". Yes thin, I know right.

Elasmotherium, as you may have noticed, are a distant relative of the modern rhinoceros and believe it or not are closely related to horses. Down the line horses and rhinos share a common, hornless ancestor and along with tapirs form the order Perissodactlya, or odd toed ungulates.

Look at that beautiful horn

Elasmotherium were also alive to coincide with humans, as they may have only gone extinct around 50,000 years ago (humans migrated to Eurasia aroung 125,000 - 60,000 years ago). Do you know what that means? your ancestors were living it up, riding unicorns and being amazing.

It most likely grazed much like modern rhinos and horses and due to an odd trait of its teeth that made them ever growing its skull closely resembles that of a horse. If you dug up this skeleton in the middle ages and didn't know any better, this was a unicorn skeleton.

Elasmotherium have also developed legs more suitable to galloping rather than traditional rhino style legs making it appear much like a horse would. Thankfully, this also means that unicorns galloped majestically in the fields of rainbows and drank the tears of god as early humans watched in awe of these magnificent beasts.

Unfortunately, these real life unicorns went extinct far before any of our ancestors could see them, however strange reports still find a way to keep them alive in cryptozoological circles, keeping slight hope of a unicorn still alive, and with cloning technology increasing, who knows, maybe one day these mythical beasts just might not be as mythical.