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Illustration of Elasmotherium by Zdenek Burian.
Elasmotherium or the Siberian unicorn was a genus of very large woolly rhinoceros which ranged across Eurasia during the Late Pliocene through the Pleistocene, existing from 2.6 Ma to at least as late as 39,000 years ago in the Late Pleistocene; a more recent date of 26,000 BP is considered less reliable. It is believed to have had a very long, thick horn on its brow. Although considered extinct, a number of researchers and cryptozoologists have speculated that it may have existed for longer than is currently accepted, and that it may have inspired legends of unicorns.[1][2]
Several Asian unicorns such as the Evenk unicorn, the Indus unicorn, and the indrik closely resemble Elasmotherium. They are described as giant black bulls with deer-like legs, horse-like legs, and, most importantly, a single, very large horn upon their brows.[1]
Dale A. Drinnon, noting that if Elasmotherium lived into the post-glacial period it would favour the Asiatic steppe regions, wrote that:
| “ | It would only rarely live in the actual desert regions, but in the early post-glacial the deserts were much less extensive. Later populations would have drawn into cluster areas south of Lake Baikhal and in Persia and the northern Fertile Crescent; those are areas where we find the stories about them persisting later.[2]
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Drinnon believes that Elasmotherium may have inspired several Central Asian unicorns, but has been extinct since at least the early 20th Century.[2]
George Eberhart also suggests the ceratopsian-like emela-ntouka of the Congo may be a living Elasmotherium.[3]