The Secret Lives of Unicorns

The Secret Lives of Unicorns — page 5

The Secret Lives of Unicorns — page 6 — Part I WHAT IS A UNICORN The unicorn is a hoofed herbivore of the Unicornuus family A herbivore is an animal whose diet consists of only plants Unlike its cousin the horse unicorns also hold magical properties Unicornologists like myself study and track unicorns to better understand their ancestry nature and magical properties But the first unicorns did not resemble the ones we know today Let’s delve deep into the past and go back to a time when the Earth had not yet been trodden on by the earliest humans to the first traces of the unicorn Taxonomy Chart Kingdom Animalia Phylum Chordata Class Mammalia Order Artiodactyla Family Unicornuus

The Secret Lives of Unicorns — page 7 — The First Unicorns There are six different species of unicorn and although they all belong to the same family they can look very different from one another The features that make them distinct have evolved over time to help them adapt to different environments Perisodactylla Eocene 54 8 33 7 mya Height 0 6 m An ancestor of the modern horse rhinoceros tapir and unicorn Million years ago Fabulaeractyls Oligocene 33 7 23 7 mya Height 0 8 m Larger than Perisodactylla Fabulaeractyls had still not developed a horn Baluchitherium Miocene 23 7 5 3 mya Height 1 2 m A small horn had started to develop on the Baluchitherium 12

The Secret Lives of Unicorns — page 8 — m 2 1 8 m 1 4 m 1 2 m 0 8 m 0 6 m 0 m Height in metres Cornumagnatopalys Pliocene 5 3 1 8 mya Height 1 4 m After enduring an ice age close ancestors of Unicornuus developed a thicker hide and mane to endure the cold Unicornuus Pleistocene 1 8 mya present day Height 1 8 m Much taller than its ancestors the modern unicorn has a fully formed muzzle and jaw and a distinct horn 13

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