ELASMOTHERIUM

also called Giant Unicorn, extinct genus of rhinoceros found as a fossil in Pleistocene deposits in northern Eurasia (the Pleistocene Epoch began 1,600,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago). Its popular name derives from the very large horn on its forehead, which reached a length of about 2 m (more than 6 feet). Elasmotherium was much larger than any modern rhinoceros. The incisors had been lost, whereas the cheek teeth were well adapted to grazing. Elasmotherium is primarily known from skull parts; the remainder of the skeleton is poorly represented in the fossil record. Its ancestry has been traced to smaller forms of the preceding Pliocene Epoch (5.3 to 1.6 million years ago) found as fossils in China.