devitbtI’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
Most people don’t know that, although a unicorn looks most like a horse, it’s actually most closely related to the narwhal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal Evolutionary scientists theorize that unicorns had to take to the cold oceans several thousand years ago to avoid the pressure put on the populations by the expansion of the horse across several continents (since they eat the same things, they couldn’t live in the same place). So, like the ancestors of whales, sea lions and seals, they adapted to an aquatic environment and the only real sign of their unicorn origins is the single horn on their foreheads.
Of course, we assume that all land based unicorns are now extinct, since no one has seen a live one in recorded history.
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I’m not a unicorn anatomy expert, but I do know that there’s a famous story about a traveller called Marco Polo (you might know the swimming pool game named after him), and who lived in the 13th century, who thought he saw a unicorn.
He described it as… “Scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant’s. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead. They have a head like a wild boar’s. They spend their time wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at.”
It has since been realised Marco Polo was describing a rhinoceros. 🙂
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Gross anatomy of unicorn (latin equus cornu) colouring: varies but mostly white. Coat may also contain reflective cells creating shimmering effect in light. Similar in structure to other equine mammals. Has more than 200 bones. Distinguished by two large horns entwined into single protrusion on top of forehead of variable length (15-25cm). Internal characteristics – large heart made of marshmallow and does not have a digestive tract because it produces it’s own food from our dreams. (Note: Reality is not determined by existence on the internet! In other words this is a very creative response!) 🙂
For the record: there is a unicorn fish (Naso unicornis) found in near coral reefs in Hawaii and Japan and a plant known as the unicorn root (alteris farinosa) so not 100% sure which one you are referring to!
Also a really cool constellation known as monoceros visible in the southern hemisphere near Orion and Canis major/Canis minor- check it out on google skymaps to find exact location to see.
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The anatomy of a unicorn would be somewhere between that of a horse, and Pegasus 😉
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Dear devitbt (that’s your real name right?)
I must admit that when I read your question, I was pleased. Although most people think that a unicorn is just a white horse with something poking out of its forehead, you had the insight to go beyond the superficial to ask what’s inside. Just like a true scientist.
I have never dissected a unicorn myself, so I can only go by what little evidence there is on the ever factual ‘internet’. This website (https://kenleydarling.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/todays-sketch-october-15th/img_1875/) reveals something akin to a horse but with a special ‘rainbow gland’ inside the breastplate (that’s the horse equivalent of a chest). The location of the rainbow gland is an ongoing controversy however. The website iwastesomuchtime.com/on/?i=17294 clearly places rainbows within the unicorn’s rump while the breastplate is reserved for ‘hugs’.
Personally I subscribe to the anatomical definition described by https://www.eatliver.com/i.php?n=3952 because I think it is much more likely that the breastplate contains the ‘anterior sparkle siphon’ than either the rainbow gland or hugs. However, this is really just a guess.
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