Why Can’t We Have Unicorns?

Fun fact: Narwhals horns may have been passed off as unicorn horns by traders in Medieval times, which explains why many depictions of unicorns in Medieval art has the horn as being longer than the body of the unicorn.

So basically horses are just unicorns that spend their mating season in Narnia, shedding their horn before returning to dull old Earth for the rest of the year.

Honestly the idea of a deericorn being a rare mutant that cant pass on the centered single horn trait fits the concept of a unicorn best imo

I've always imagined that a unicorn's horn begins as two fairly close together that twist into a double helix.

There was actualy an instance in 2018 where a reindeer was spotted with an antler growing on it's forehead. Granted it still had it's 2 other antlers, and the 3rd antler was really underdeveloped, but it was still cool to see

also interesting to note on single horn mutations of creatures that naturally have two horns (and on the topic of mythology): Depending on where in the development of the neural crest the mutation occurs, this is also how cyclops are born. It's just when the neural crest fails to split and duplicate properly. This is also part of the reason for cleft palettes - the neural crest not coming together properly once it duplicates and not sealing all the way leaves a cleft between the two sides. There's also a lot of really interesting pattern and color mutations that can occur on the neural crest. Piebald creatures are a great example, and beautiful to boot.

I never thought I would say this about a huge beast capable of tossing vehicles with ease, but those rhino clips were so cute.

An Indian one horned rhinoceros Latin name is literally Rhinoceros unicornis, I think that if an hippopotamus is a "river horse" then a rhinoceros can be a unicorn.

The Unicorn is the National Animals of Scotland. Do not come between us and our unicorns.

Because they stab people and then the illusion is shattered to the point we have to reboot the whole damn universe again.

I am so glad that he mentioned the classical depiction of them. Because it infuriates me that people keep thinking they're just horses with horns, When the original depiction of them is so wild and, frankly, more interesting looking

More thumbnails like this, please! Loved it 😂

I just went through a lot of this a few weeks ago when I was trying to make a unicorn-esque creature for my fantasy world. I ended up with the unicorns ending up in the Ruminantia suborder (next to the mouse deer, Tragulidae, and horn bearers, Pecora). Their "horn" is actually two tusks that grow upwards from the jaw, around the nasal cavity, and out the top of their snout where the two teeth will grow into each other and form a single "horn" structure. They mainly use their horns to break apart ice sheets and dig through permafrost layers to get to their food source.

Funny enough, in the fossil record there were once very horselike rhinos (paraceratheres), but they seemed to have lacked horns. On the flipside, the very rhino like brontotheres were closer in relation to horses, and did have singular horns (with bone), but they were bifurcated, and their bodies were too robust. Even among extinct animals, unicorns as gracile, horse like perissodactyls with singular horns just barely elude us!

“Narwhals, narwhals swimming in the ocean causing a commotion”. 🎶

Im dissapointed you didnt mention the actual Siberian unicorn! Elasmotherium sibiricum horn grew out of its forehead! Though its more like a fuzzy rhino than a horse lol

I appreciate SciShow's dedication to answer such an unserious question so seriously haha.

"um actually", traditional unicorns are far more chimeric than just horses with horns. Different hooves, beards, tails, and other changes.

Narwhals, Narwhals Swimming in the ocean Causing a commotion Coz they are so awesome

Wasn't the sum total of the plot of The Last Unicorn a unicorn gets trapped alone on land and doesn't realize the rest of its species are now Narwhals?