I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. I’m going to say that right now and get it out of the way. I’ll undoubtedly be subscribing to the Disney+ streaming service just to watch the new Star Wars live-action TV show, The Mandalorian, which just dropped a new trailer. In the trailer there is are a couple of shots of a new creature on an unspecified world from a galaxy far, far away:
These animals were much like a rhinoceros, in that they were herbivorous and had a large horn. However, unlike modern rhinos, Elasmotherium is thought to have had only one horn instead of two and where much larger. These are estimated to have reached lengths of 5.2 meters (17 ft) and a shoulder height of about 2 meters (6.5 ft). They are also thought to weight approximately 2 to 5 tons (4,000 to 10,000 pounds). In comparison, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana, the largest extant land animal) stands 2.5 to 4 meters (8.2 to 13 feet) at the shoulder and weighs 2.5 to 7 tons (5,000 to 14,000 pounds).
The above skeleton reconstruction notably lacks any horn whatsoever. Instead there is just a large knob on its head. This is true for all known specimens of Elasmotherium because no horn has been discovered. Horns are made of a tightly packed, fibrous growth of keratin (like your fingernails) rather than crystalline enamel (teeth and tusks) or bone. As such, they do not preserve as well. So, all reconstructions of the horn are purely speculative and there are many interpretations of the size and shape of the horn, such as the shown one above, and those shown here and here. In fact, many of these depictions show Elasmotherium to be woolly, although there is no direct evidence that it was. Unfortunately, there is much that we don’t know about Elasmotherium. But, we do have this image taken from paleolithic artwork on a cave wall:
