Paleologic, Elasmotherium - May 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let's talk about something different - the Paleologic YouTube channel. Way back when I have watched the Paleologic premiere video- about Elasmotherium, the ‘laminated beast’. Therefore, what about it?

First, the Elasmotherium- and there were several species, not just one - weren’t true rhinos, but their close cousins. Fair enough, for ecologically- and superficially- the two sister groups come off very similar to each other: yes, the Elasmotherium were grazing specialists, but so are the modern white rhinos, (there are two subspecies - yet), with their low-slung heads and wide lips & mouths, so the Elasmotherium weren’t too atypical from the ecological point of view.

To elaborate, perhaps unnecessarily: there are still 5 species of modern rhino, but except for the white rhinos, they are more of browsers instead of grazers. Their grazing lifestyle makes the white rhinos different from the other rhinos- but what about the Elasmotherium?

Second, the Elasmotherium may not have horns; actually, the horns alone are different, since the rhinos have them on their noses, while the Elasmotherium had them on the crowns of their heads. There’s less cave art and similar evidence for them than for some other Ice Age mammals, but it is there, and it shows the Elasmotherium with horns, rather than hornless. Plus, their fossilized bones imply that they had huge heavy horns on their heads as well.

Finally, given that the Elasmotherium died out so recently, there’s a chance that humans may have encountered them - and this was one source of inspiration for the unicorn myth. Yes, the Elasmotherium was probably about as ‘friendly’ as their rhino cousins can be, but keep in mind that the aforementioned rhinos can be rather horselike in appearance, (ever saw a black rhino run, for example? Its’ trot is surprisingly horselike), and second, while in the West the unicorn was a mild and gentle creature, in the Middle East, the one-horned beasts were brutish and fierce instead, especially the beast called the Karkadann, which the scientists declare now to be a fictional descendant of the modern Indian rhino instead, but who knows?

The Slavs too had their monstrous unicorn - the so-called Indrik-beast; its’ depictions are vaguer than the karkadann’s, but it too had a single horn, a robust body, (more like a bull’s than a horse’s, cough), and a fiery temper - a rather unicorn-like creature gone rhino-like. Was it also inspired by the Elasmotherium? Who knows…

Anything else? Well, if the Elasmotherium would still be around in the Modern times, it would have been quite interesting, though given as to how the humans are driving the modern rhinos to extinction ? This rhino cousin might have gone extinct anyhow instead. And so far, it is not much in the modern media- save for the “Prehistoric Park” mini-series, I have not seen the Elasmotherium at all, (and on that show, it was depicted- and acted - like a modern bull rhino, BTW).

So, I guess that this is the end of our talk about the Elasmotherium for now. See you all soon!