# How many single horned creatures are there? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981 "2009-01-05T19:33:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elconqueeestador](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@elconqueeestador](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elconqueeestador)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/1 "2009-01-05T19:33:03Z")
How many single horned creatures are there including real, mythical, extinct, etc. that you can name? Off the top of my head I can think of a few such as: unicorn, narwahl, rhinocerous, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/2 "2009-01-05T19:37:32Z")
I don’t think there are any real one-horned animals. The rhinoceros’ “horn” is a hair-based growth; the narwhal’s “horn” is a tusk. In the realm of delightful, enchanting myth, of course, there’s [Princess Unicorn](http://www.princessunicorndoll.com/). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/3 "2009-01-05T19:40:40Z")
Not all rhinoceros are one-horned. Nor all narwhals, for that matter. The prehistoric ceratopsian **Monoclonius** was single-horned (think of it as a triceratops without the two top horns) The **Ceratosaurus** actually had two horns, like many rhinoceros do, but one is pretty small, so I can probably squeak it by. > **[Ceratosaurus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratosaurus)** > > Ceratosaurus /ˌsɛrətoʊˈsɔːrəs/ (from Greek κέρας/κέρατος, keras/keratos meaning "horn" and σαῦρος sauros meaning "lizard") was a carnivorous theropod dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic period (Kimmeridgian to Tithonian ages). The genus was first described in 1884 by American paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in Garden Park, Colorado, in rocks belonging to the Morrison Formation. The type species is Ceratosaurus nasicornis. > The Garden P... Medieval bestiaries also included, besides the Unicorn, another one-horned beast called the **Monoceras** , which looks like it may just be a repeated case of the Unicorn, since the name means “one horn”. Then there’s the **Rhinoceros Beetle** : > **[Dynastinae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_Beetle)** > > See text > Dynastinae or rhinoceros beetles are a subfamily of the scarab beetle family (Scarabaeidae). Other common names – some for particular groups of rhinoceros beetles – include Hercules beetles, unicorn beetles or horn beetles. Over 1500 species and 225 genera of rhinoceros beetles are known. > Many rhinoceros beetles are well known for their unique shapes and large sizes. Some famous species are, for example, the Atlas beetle (Chalcosoma atlas), common rhinoceros beetle (Xylotrupes ulysse... I’m sure there must be plenty of other dinosaurs and lizards that fall into this category. In addition, there are the artificially created unicorns, made by fusing the horn buds of an immature bull or goat, and the mistaken cases, like the _re’em_ and some African antelopes. See Willy Ley’s essay on the unicorn, and Odell Shepherd’s claasic **The Lore of the Unicorn**. And search the internet ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/4 "2009-01-06T00:27:50Z")
Flying purple people eater. He only had one eye also. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/5 "2009-01-06T00:41:17Z")
The [Kirin](http://images.google.com/images?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=Kirin&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi&oi=property_suggestions&resnum=0&ct=property-revision&cd=1) which is somewhat Unicorn like. There are the occasional goats with fused horns forming a single horn. BTW: Just to get it out of the way, the narwhal actually has a long tooth and not a horn. It is an incisor tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw and forms a left-handed helix. Many dragons over the years, especially more recently have a single horn and of course there is the relatively recent Pegacorn. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/6 "2009-01-06T01:07:58Z")
I believe Peter Cook had the horn, once. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/7 "2009-01-06T03:26:46Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > BTW: Just to get it out of the way, the narwhal actually has a long tooth and not a horn. It is an incisor tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw and forms a left-handed helix. Plus, the females often do not have a horn/tusk at all, which is what I think **CalMeacham** may have been referring to. Boromir had one horn … oh, wait - you probably only wanted ones that were actually attached to their bodies. Never mind. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/8 "2009-01-06T03:29:41Z")
The two rhinos with single horns both belong to genus _Rhinoceros_: the Great Indian Rhinoceros, _R. unicornis_, and the rare Javan Rhinoceros, _R. sondaicus_. Both the Black and White Rhinos of Africa and the Sumatran Rhino have two horns, both on the midline of the snout, as did the Woolly Rhino of Ice Age Eurasia. Of all the variant extinct rhinos (quite a broad radiation), only Family Rhinocerotidae, the modern surviving forms and their closest extinct relatives, appear to have grown the medial collagen horns that gave the animals their name. The extinct perissodactyl family Brontotheridae had a hammerhead-shaped medial nasal horn. The artiodactyl family Antilocapridae, represented today by the Pronghorn “antelope” of Western North America, also had medial horns, often bifurcating or producing even more complex shapes. Whatever the Sirrush (Hebrew re’em) of Babylonian legend may have been, it’s depicted as a gracile ungulate with a long, straight single brow horn, the base appearing to be above and between the eyes. It’s worth noting that the legendary unicorn was not a horned horse, but an animal with cloven hooves and a “beard” on its chin, of horselike build but otherwise similar to a large goat. Very rarely, the horn cores of a goat will fuse and produce a single-horned goat that bears close resemblance to the medieval bestiaries’ pictures of unicorns. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/9 "2009-01-06T04:26:19Z")
There are a number of birds with single bony “horns” or hornlike ornaments on their heads or bills: [Horned Guan](http://www.arkive.org/media/82BF68BE-4811-4EBA-9918-2D668C9785AA/Presentation.Large/photo.jpg) [Helmeted Curassow](http://www.arkive.org/media/50B439F9-1A69-497D-9A24-BDEDAB3FA478/Presentation.Large/photo.jpg) [Helmeted Guineafowl](http://i.pbase.com/o6/34/750334/1/85045978.hsqHbRaj.HelmetedGu_eagris.jpg) There are many species of [hornbills.](http://www.cringel.com/files/images/adia-2007-08-04-DSC-2814-hornbill-in-bird-park-malaysia-kuala-lumpur-cringel.com.jpg) There are several species of [cassowary.](http://www.daintreebirdwatching.com.au/images/cassowary-Robert%20South3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/10 "2009-01-06T04:29:37Z")
[Humans with horns](http://images.google.com/images?q=human+horn). [Here, too](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=al+hirt). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-single-horned-creatures-are-there/479981/11 "2009-01-06T13:40:56Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > Plus, the females often do not have a horn/tusk at all, which is what I think **CalMeacham** may have been referring to. > Boromir had one horn … oh, wait - you probably only wanted ones that were actually attached to their bodies. Never mind. 😉 I have also seen some narwhals with two tusks. I thought he might have be talking about those. I did not know the females often don’t have the “horn”. Here is a picture of one that was killed: [Warning it is a bit bloody](http://jangeisler.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/narhval.jpg). [Here is a close up of the tooth](http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/images/05MSEL013_narwhals_tuskpartialHR.jpg). You’ll see why they use to sell narwhal “horns” as Unicorn horns. It never hurts to sneak in a Tolkien reference, especially when talking myths. 🙂