Archaeologists found a “two-legged unicorn” in Germany in 1663
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In 1663, archaeologists working in the Seweckenberge hills of central Germany uncovered fossilized bones that people initially believed belonged to a two-legged unicorn.
The discovery drew attention from scholars including Otto von Guericke, a scientist known for inventing the vacuum pump, who may have reconstructed the bones into a skeletal display around 1668. However, historians now question whether Von Guericke created the reconstruction, as astronomer Johannes Meyer and scientist Gottfried Leibniz also sketched the animal.
Later research revealed the reconstructed skeleton wasn’t from a single animal, but a combination of different species. Paleontologist Thijs van Kolfschoten suggests the “horn” was likely a narwhal tusk, the skull belonged to a woolly rhinoceros, and the shoulder blades and front legs came from a mammoth. The origins of the remaining bones remain unknown because the original fossils are lost.
Today, a plaster cast of the “Magdeburg Unicorn” is displayed at the Museum für Naturkunde in Magdeburg, Germany, and continues to puzzle experts. Limited historical records and the lack of original bones make it difficult to determine exactly how the reconstruction was created or which animals contributed to it, and scientists may never know the full story behind this unusual fossil.
