For many decades, scientists believed that the Siberian unicorn – a long-extinct species of a mammal more like a rhinoceros than a horse – died about 350,000 years ago. But the perfectly preserved skull, found in Kazakhstan, completely abolished this assumption.
It turns out that these incredible creatures still walked the earth about 29,000 years ago. The real unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum, was shaggy and huge and looked about the same as a modern rhino, only the powerful horn was on his forehead.
In height it reached 2 m, in length – 4.5 m, weighed about 4 tons. He ate mostly grass. A recently found skull, which was perfectly preserved, was found in the Pavlodar region of Kazakhstan. Researchers from Tomsk State University, using methods of radiocarbon dating, established its age – about 29,000 years.
Scientists suggest that the unicorn that belonged to the skull probably was an old male. How he died is unclear.
The find suggests that unicorns migrated from north to south of Western Siberia, where they existed much longer than previously thought.
