Back to the important questions! You probably all heard about unicorns – legendary creatures that looked like beautiful white horses with single horn protruding from their foreheads. This horn had supposedly magical healing properties and was valued among humans. However, what was the actual purpose of unicorn horn? Why did they have them? As we know from our observations of nature, there is many times some kind of purpose of certain physical traits.
In this article I want to speculate what would unicorns use their horns for.
Intrigued? Read on!
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Let’s define a unicorn
Basically, it is a beast with a single horn projecting from its forehead. In Europe this "beast" is usually depicted as white horse with a goat-like beard and horn. It was the protector of the forest it lived in and the vitality of this forest was connected to this creature. The unicorn horn, also known as alicorn, had been attributed variety of healing properties in the folklore. So, yes, the horn was important to humans - but! Why did unicorns possess it? What was its purpose to the animal? The answer – We do not know, because the animal is probably purely fictional. What we can do is dive into our knowledge of nature and try to find animals that have similar characteristics as unicorns and find out why they do possess horns.
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Why do these fellas have horns?
Sea unicorns
Narwhals are whales that posses a large tusk protruding from their jaws. This tusk is actually a modified canine tooth. It is primarily a male thing to have these tusks, but even some female narwhals have them. So, what is the purpose of such menacing horns? The answer might surprise you, but the tusks contains millions of nerve endings and are in fact complex sensory organs. Male narwhals rub their tusks together (I know what are you thinking about, so stop :D ) to probably communicate information about the waters they swam through. I would never think about such function before writing this article. So maybe unicorns could also use their horns for communication.
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Multi-purpose tool
Rhinos are known to possess horns protruding from their noses. But why? Well, for variety of things. The size of the horn is an indicator of prowess - larger horn equals more desirable male. It is also used for intimidation of other rivals or even defense. Rhinos sharpen their horns by rubbing them against rough surfaces and they are also quick runners - so such charging colossus is quite a nightmare. Another purpose of horns is to dig roots or small plants from ground and rhinos even try to dig an underground water supply with them. Females also use their horns to steer and guide their offspring. Might this be the reason for unicorn horns? Interesting thing is also the evolution of horses and rhinos. The actually both belong to the Perissodactyla order - which means that they are not that distant!
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Mysterious one
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Saola is almost as enigmatic as unicorn. This creature related to cattle, sometimes named "Asian unicorn", possesses a pair of parallel straight horns about 50 cm in length. However, they were never seen in person by a scientist! They are extremely rare, critically endangered and live in the remote Annamite mountains. Why do they have horns? Maybe for the same reason as unicorns. And we don’t know that reason!
Concluding remarks
So, hopefully you did all learn something new today! Even though the subject was a bit silly. OK, It was very silly.
I wasn’t here for some time, but from now one will produce more articles again. See you soon.
Have a great day!
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References
Unicorn – Wikipedia article
Unicorn horn – Wikipedia article
Narwhal – Wikipedia article
The evolutionary biology of the unicorn! – Article by David Ng
Meet ten animals that look like real life unicorns – Article by Ella Davies