The Narwhal.....

Hey that's good. I never knew there were horned goats! If they still exist, and given to the right people, a Unicorn could maybe be born, if it never existed. People bred cows to be fat. Does anyone know if Donkeys or horses can be bred with goats?

And, no, I don't think a species or horned horses found themselves in a region that required that they return to the ocean. Evolution is based on necessity, and there is no need for a horse to start swimming and lose its legs. Also, it took two billion years for horses to get where they are now. It would take just as long to get back into the ocean. The oldest records we have of unicorns are biblical accounts, which go back at max 10,000 years (stretching it), which is not enough time for their unicorns to become our narwhals.

Whislt I agree, just thought I'd point out that Whales were once land based mammals that did move BACK into the sea....

Just to clear that up

Whales, along with most dolphins and porpoises, are descendants of land-living mammals, most likely of the Artiodactyl order. They entered the water roughly 50 million years ago. See evolution of cetaceans for the details [1].

Cetaceans are divided into two suborders:

The baleen whales are characterized by the baleen, a sieve-like structure in the upper jaw made of keratin, which they use to filter plankton from the water. They are the largest whale.
The toothed whales have teeth and prey on fish, squid, or both. An outstanding ability of this group is to sense their surrounding environment through echolocation.
A complete up-to-date taxonomical listing of all cetacean species, including all whales, is maintained at the Cetacea article.

Source

Well put (whales getting back to sea, and medieval narwhal horns sold as unicorn such).

However, if anyone wants to check out real unicorns, I'd suggest the Harz Mountains of Germany or the Shenandoah National Park of the US. At least if going by the Fortean Times, No. 74 (April/May 1994), where they have a picture of one unicorn from each place. The former looks decidedly romantic (though probably "a still from Legend, the Ridley Scott movie"), while the latter is accurately described as "pretty mangy" by its photographer.

Riiiight...

I was explaining different mystical creatures, from a medieval book I have, in another thread, and NO YOU CAN'T BUY ONE OR FIND ONE OR EVEN READ ONE. Anyway, there they explain that nobody has ever seena unicorn, but they did manage to trick people from Asia and the east, into thinking they were buying unicorn-horns, when they were really buying narwhale horns. This was about 1000 years ago, so you figure it out.

Originally posted by Inanna
I never knew there were horned goats!

I hope you are not talking about the TWO-horned goats. because if you are, then please stay 50 feet from nature at any times, cause you don't seem to know much.

This site is interesting Click as it tells of various hoaxes using narwhal and other animals horns in the middle ages. Some of the tapestry pictures certainly resemble the goats previously posted hence the weirdy beardy.

The truth is stranger then fiction, I mean look at the size of the horn on the whale, they would have to use just the tip for a unicorn (being that is it is 5 feet long or more).

The petiasuar (flying dino) has a head about the same size as its own body, and 70% of its bone mass looks to be its skull.

Something like a dragon or unicorn seem to have somewhat normal proportions when compared with animals that exist, or used to.

Most people in the middle ages would think a horned horse would make more sense then a whale.