Unicorn Spotted In Nature Preserve [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

Haruspex

2008-06-24, 06:30 AM

Didn't click the link as I assume it's the same story as one I read previously.

Don't know how a one-horned deer could be mistaken for a one-horned horse though. Then again myths are myths. I wonder how this will affect the deer's quality of life. I'm not aware if their standard horns are for anything useful. If it survives to breed it may sire a whole population of unicorn deer! :smalleek:

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 06:50 AM

I may not be ableto find anything online about it, but did you know that at least 1 human was born with a similar horn? I'll try to fund some pictures (I'll edit this post if I succeed).

DigoDragon

2008-06-24, 06:53 AM

Don't know how a one-horned deer could be mistaken for a one-horned horse though. Then again myths are myths.

I think of myths as a game of "Telephone" over a long span of time. :smallsmile:

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 06:57 AM

You're probably right. I know a lot of myths were based on fact, though (for instance, before the panda was officially discovered, the idea of a bear-like creature which could eat iron with no negative side-effects was ridiculous).

randman22222

2008-06-24, 07:00 AM

...Pandas can eat iron?

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 07:03 AM

Yes. Ancient Chinese books claimed they could, but this was never tested in the West until a zoo keeper gave a panda some food in an iron trougth. The panda then proceeded to eat the trough which went through it's digestive stystem without causing any apparent damage at all. I'll try and find some more information about that.

EDIT: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/WhatsInAName/default.cfm mentions that they were often refered to as "iron-eating beasts" (I can't find the zoo anecdote anywhere, though).

YPU

2008-06-24, 07:12 AM

I may not be ableto find anything online about it, but did you know that at least 1 human was born with a similar horn? I'll try to fund some pictures (I'll edit this post if I succeed).

Now I would be interested in seeing that, normally I would probably assume it bogus had I myself not grown a 1cm ‘horn’ on my chin, no medical explanation found after removal, wasn’t in the middle tough.

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 07:18 AM

Was that painful at all? The human unicorn was mentioned in "The Lost Continant" by Bill Bryson (it was mentioned at the Ripley's believe it or Not Museum . I can't remember the town where the museum was (it was in the late '80s when Bryson went, but it was somewhere near the Appalachian Mountains).

Serpentine

2008-06-24, 07:40 AM

How about the tree man (http://reviewsion.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/tree-man.jpg)? Poor bastard... I could see something like that forming something horn-like, though.

YPU

2008-06-24, 07:41 AM

Was that painful at all?
The operation involved heavy sedatives and what was later describes as “basically drilling the ‘horn’ out trough the mouth with a power tool, trough the mouth so it wont leave a scar.” It sounds rather painful but it felt like a bit of a bruise beneath my skin, not so bad. Now removing the stitches that was painful, as my mouthflesh had already started recovering around them. But I suppose that without the operation I would be the human narwhal.

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 07:45 AM

That's good (I wondered if it was painful at all when it first appeared). I know what you mean about the Tree Man as well, Serpentine (has anyone figured out what caused his condition yet?).

Serpentine

2008-06-24, 07:52 AM

A friend of mine apparently doesn't believe in narwhals... Which reminds me, I need to make fun of her for that next time I see her :smallamused:

On the Tree Man, they're working on it. The article's here (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1584915/Tree-man-%27who-grew-roots%27-hopes-to-marry-after-4lb-of-warts-removed.html). Short version: They've figured out what's caused it (an incredibly rare immune deficiency disorder), have removed some of it, and are trying to figure out how to stop it from growing back.

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 07:55 AM

Thanks for the article (I know doctors were having problems with it the last time I heard anything abot it).

Dallas-Dakota

2008-06-24, 08:02 AM

I knew it. And now we need to find some kind of dragon so that we can say. Unicorns and dragons do exist.

heheh.

Rawhide

2008-06-24, 08:07 AM

I knew it. And now we need to find some kind of dragon so that we can say. Unicorns and dragons do exist.

heheh.
They do.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/52/Feeding_a_Bearded_Dragon.jpg/450px-Feeding_a_Bearded_Dragon.jpg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearded_Dragon)

Serpentine

2008-06-24, 08:22 AM

Also
http://www.komodotours.com/images/komodo-dragon.gif
and for that matter
http://www.paleodirect.com/images/pterosaur1.jpg
Just when does a "big flying reptile that breathes fire and has other magical abilities" stop being just "a big flying reptile" with misinformation tacked on? By which I mean, what really is the difference between a dragon and, say, a pterosaur aside from overactive imaginations? A potential PhD topic? MAYBE!

Trog: *ahem*
http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_18022188/90ad/__sr_/cc07.jpg?groCTYIBNGqYCJlT
http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_18022188/90ad/__sr_/33ec.jpg?groCTYIBkvF_55VT

Trog

2008-06-24, 08:29 AM

Huh. :smallconfused: Well next they'll start proving all sorts of mythical creatures exist. :smalltongue:
http://static.flickr.com/51/125253217_d5beb6bc64.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/6975/linkladiesra4.jpg

Tempest Fennac

2008-06-24, 08:33 AM

Now that I think about it, there are some theories that not all of the dinosaurs died out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mokele_Mbembe . If some of them survived somehow, they could explain dragon myths.

de-trick

2008-06-24, 08:52 AM

there was that one fish that survived and then crocodiles, dragonflies, cockroaches, mosquitoes that also were from that time period.

I'm sure there are some more animals undiscovered by mankind either in a Jungle, Arctic, or Sea.

Trog

2008-06-24, 09:25 AM

Trog: *ahem*
http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_18022188/90ad/__sr_/cc07.jpg?groCTYIBNGqYCJlT
http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/groups/g_18022188/90ad/__sr_/33ec.jpg?groCTYIBkvF_55VT

Oh come now. Those are obviously photoshopped. :smallwink:

What next? A shot of someone being right on the internet? :smalltongue:

Phase

2008-06-24, 09:31 AM

Most dragon myths were likely started by discoveries of dinosaur fossils. It would be one of the only reasons to explain why so many cultures convergently imagined dragons. I'm just waiting for an explaination for as to why they all thought dragons breathed fire.

Mauve Shirt

2008-06-24, 09:35 AM

Nonsense, that's a deer, not a horse! It isn't even white!

Dallas-Dakota

2008-06-24, 09:43 AM

Well quite simple for the europeans.
You have fires, when a person is burned, mosty they found bones.
They find two skeletons and thus only bones lying around next to eachother.
So you get fire.

Quite a flawed logic but good logic for the black ages.

Serp, I knew about the first one.
The second one is just a reconstruction. I have seen it before.

The third and fourth are just plainly photoshopped.

Trog : Stop trying to raise fake hope with people. If one of the elves knew either some Quenya or Sindarin, I'd ask them to marry me.
Nah, those'l be fantasy for ever, I mean... Just don't give us false hope trog.

Also about animals : I can tell you that there are some very look a-like dragons. I just haven't got the chemical formula right so they can breath fire at will. Ah darnit, shouldn't have said that...

AtomicKitKat

2008-06-24, 10:14 AM

I don't get Serp's "people" pictures. :smallconfused:

I suspect the deer has something similar to the Cyclops kitten.

Also, it's obviously a kirin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qilin)!:smalltongue:

Serpentine

2008-06-24, 10:51 AM

Ah, I just remembered what this thing reminded me of. There was a calf that had had its horns somehow grafted together to give it a single one in the centre of its forehead. Here's (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/110/315346060_ed8228023f_o.jpg) a cow like that, anyway.

AKK: They were examples of the elusive gamer-girl Trog was claiming don't exist, specifically LARPers.

YPU

2008-06-24, 11:02 AM

AKK: They were examples of the elusive gamer-girl Trog was claiming don't exist, specifically LARPers.

Interestingly enough there generally are more females then males at larps I attend, and I know of events with over 500 participants around here. Of course there is dragenfest with a week full of more then a thousand larpers, but its German larp known for its roughness so I don’t know the division there.

Player_Zero

2008-06-24, 11:34 AM

*Miss-reads title.*

AHHHH! OH GOD!

http://sci-fi-guys.com/wp-content/uploads/unicron-04.jpeg

Ohhhhh! UniCORN. Right...

sktarq

2008-06-24, 03:46 PM

Trog : Stop trying to raise fake hope with people. If one of the elves knew either some Quenya or Sindarin, I'd ask them to marry me.
Nah, those'l be fantasy for ever, I mean... Just don't give us false hope trog.

On this. Yeah I know/have been introduced a few female "elves" that do know to Quenya. And at least one that knows Sindarin but she's married. I'd actually warn you off them. The level of comitment to their elven "ideals" can get rather....."wacky". As in surgical alterations to eye and ear shape.

As for the unicorn deer. Seveal legends put the creaature together differently. Older (pre Norman) myths give it the head of a horse, body of a deer, and the tail of a lion. Some farther Eastern Versions give it an almost bullish shape (and may have been related to a rhino sighting). Another, Russian if memory serves legend made it really sound like a single horned Makhor, A kind of goat like animal found in Central Asia. The classic "White Horse with a beard and Spiral horn" pretty much can be traced to the areas the Franks controled. Whether they originated the myth or not I'm not sure.

Zarrexaij

2008-06-24, 07:36 PM

Now that I think about it, there are some theories that not all of the dinosaurs died outReally?

Because the prevailing opinion in the paleontology field is that birds descended from dinosaurs- particularly the Maniraptor family, where you find Velociraptor and similar dinosaurs. There's a lot of fossil evidence to suppport this theory, such as the structure of the bones (which are very similar to birds) and the development of feathers in many therapod dinosaurs.

So that little blue jay or robin sitting outside your window is more than likely very distantly related to the T. Rex. :smallbiggrin: :smallwink:

Collin152

2008-06-24, 08:10 PM

Really?

Because the prevailing opinion in the paleontology field is that birds descended from dinosaurs- particularly the Maniraptor family, where you find Velociraptor and similar dinosaurs. There's a lot of fossil evidence to suppport this theory, such as the structure of the bones (which are very similar to birds) and the development of feathers in many therapod dinosaurs.

So that little blue jay or robin sitting outside your window is more than likely very distantly related to the T. Rex. :smallbiggrin: :smallwink:

Think he meant, remained in their archaic forms.
Like, wandering in the Rainforests of Africa, there may be sauropods.
I like that theory, personally.

Phase

2008-06-24, 08:55 PM

I like that theory, personally.

I don't (if you mean the "non-avian dinosaurs still roam earth" theory. If you meant the birds are dinosaurs theory, I wholeheartedly agree). The chances are next to none that an animal such as a sauropod can remain hidden in jungles. They were already extinct (or pretty damn close) by the time of the KT extinction event, and they would never have survived to this day.

I'm pretty sure that either the natives' reports of "Dinosaurs" were either due to fossils or my personally favorite opinion: they heard about dinosaurs form foriegn explorers, and decided to mess with anyone who asked about any fossils nearby by saying "We have live ones!". The fact of the matter is, no animal has remained unchanged for the millions of years that non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct. The reports have been too similar to extinct varieties of dinosaur to be anything new.

I wish non-avian dinosaurs HAD survived til this day. I would have loved the sentient life-form on the planet to have been these guys:

http://www.nemoramjet.com/images/noslice/illustrations/dinosauroid.jpg

And yes, there is no doubt that birds are dinosaurs. NO DOUBT.

Sorry for rambling, but this is sort of my area of expertise...

Collin152

2008-06-24, 09:02 PM

I The fact of the matter is, no animal has remained unchanged for the millions of years that non-avian dinosaurs have been extinct.

Croc. O. Diles.

Phase

2008-06-24, 09:11 PM

Croc. O. Diles.

Unchanged.

Un. Changed.

Ever hear of Deinosuchus? Sarchosuchus? Ever hear of the terrestrial crocodilians of the paleocene? Pliocene, even?

Now, a better example would've been sharks, but they're an exception because they're freakin' BADASS...

Sorry if I come off as rude. I don't mean to offend. :smallredface:

Collin152

2008-06-24, 09:21 PM

Unchanged.

Un. Changed.

Ever hear of Deinosuchus? Sarchosuchus? Ever hear of the terrestrial crocodilians of the paleocene? Pliocene, even?

Now, a better example would've been sharks, but they're an exception because they're freakin' BADASS...

Sorry if I come off as rude. I don't mean to offend. :smallredface:

Crocodiles co-existed with the Dinosaurs you so narrowmindedly claim to be extinct.
As they are today.
Not to say they haven't changed ever, or that they diddn't change at all, but then, nobodies claiming the dinosaurs diddn't change at all if they survived. That'd be silly. They still retain the defining characteristics of their species, though.

Phase

2008-06-24, 09:38 PM

Crocodiles co-existed with the Dinosaurs you so narrowmindedly claim to be extinct.
As they are today.
Not to say they haven't changed ever, or that they diddn't change at all, but then, nobodies claiming the dinosaurs diddn't change at all if they survived. That'd be silly. They still retain the defining characteristics of their species, though.

Ah, I misunderstood what you were bringing crocodiles as evidence for, sorry.

Well no one knows why crocodiles stayed alive while non-avian dinosaurs went extinct. Or other reptiles and mammals as well, when the marine reptiles and pterosaurs went extinct! I think that the fact that the non-avian dinosaurs were on top of the food web, at their prime, meant that when something happened to set them off balance, they were the one to topple first.

But another bit of proof. The dinosaurs most commonly reported to still be alive are... well, birds. But the dinosaurs second most commonly reported to still be alive are sauropods. And the place they are most commonly reported to still be alive are rainforests. The two don't match.

Sauropods have always been, since the mid-Jurassic, very large, relatively stupid animals. They need large open spaces to live, and large amounts of foliage to survive. There has been no evidence that animals of over three tons, waaaaaay under adult sauropod range, have been knocking down trees in the amazon. Animals like sauropods were big, noisy, traveled in herds, and pooped A LOT! They are very difficult animals to hide.

(Also, I think we should start to wrap up before we stray too far from the topic. :smalltongue:)

TheThan

2008-06-24, 10:04 PM