A latest data has changed dates about the baffling history of the Siberian unicorn. The massive Elasmotherium sibiricum was dubbed ‘Siberian unicorn’, though it shared just a bit besides a famous horn having most pop-culture depictions of the legendary unicorn. But, the major surprise isn’t the aesthetics, but the timing.

Earlier, scientists believed that Siberian unicorn become extinct 350,000 years back, however the latest findings have suggested that the date could be required to be revised by hundreds of thousands of years.

A team Russia’s Tomsk State University scientists examined a recently found fossilized Siberian unicorn skull. It was discovered in Kazakhstan along with fossils of mammoths and prehistoric bison. When they tried to find out the date of the fossils, they were surprised. The study has appeared in American Journal of Applied Science.

It led to a query that how did this ‘unicorn’ managed to stay alive for hundreds of thousands of years longer that thought. Researchers suggested that its ancestors could have migrated into a relatively gentle microclimate else it could have bent the last vestige of a bigger population that had disappeared from the rest of its once huge terrain.

In a press release, Andrey Shpanski, a paleontologist with Tomsk University, said, “Most likely, in the south of Western Siberia it was a refúgium, where this rhino had preserved the longest in comparison with the rest of its range”.

The massive and strong creatures, Siberian unicorns were up to 15-feet long and had an estimated weight of roughly 8,000-10,000 pounds, giant in comparison to an Asian or African forest elephant.

The prehistoric rhinos had a huge horn on their head just like their modern cousins, which they used for defense. They were herbivores.