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Description

Though at cursory glance this strange animal may appear similar to the unicorn, look closely; the strange, lumpy “horn” is covered in skin, and is in fact not a horn at all! Meet the shadhavar, cousin to the wildebeest and mammalia’s answer to hadrasaurine crests. While it is not literally riddled with holes through which the wind blows freely, the shadhavar’s strange crest is adorned with tubercles which are thought to be associated with sexual display. Males have significantly larger crests than females and up to 72 tubercles, though the average in breeding males is around 42. The crest itself is hollow, and in a case of remarkable convergent evolution to parasaurolophus, allows the amplification of sound to dramatic effect. Some say it’s calls are hauntingly beautiful, others might argue it sounds like a walking vuvuzela; for members of its own kind, the cries carry a variety of meanings from danger to coordination to love. The crest is said to have been gifted to kings, who would hold it at specific angles in a breeze so as to produce unique sounds.
Shadhavar travel in small, loose herds of females and young led by a single male while non-competitive males travel in bachelor groups. A herd may be spread over great distances, as long as they can still hear their neighbors’ low frequency “safety” calls. Though they have always been uncommon, their range has shrunk since the last ice age from much of west Asia to limited ranges in the Anatolian plateau in Turkey. The shadhavar first appeared in the mid Pleistocene, sharing a common ancestor with the now extinct rusingoryx, another alcelaphine bovid with a weird hollow skull.

Description

Though at cursory glance this strange animal may appear similar to the unicorn, look closely; the strange, lumpy “horn” is covered in skin, and is in fact not a horn at all! Meet the shadhavar, cousin to the wildebeest and mammalia’s answer to hadrasaurine crests. While it is not literally riddled with holes through which the wind blows freely, the shadhavar’s strange crest is adorned with tubercles which are thought to be associated with sexual display. Males have significantly larger crests than females and up to 72 tubercles, though the average in breeding males is around 42. The crest itself is hollow, and in a case of remarkable convergent evolution to parasaurolophus, allows the amplification of sound to dramatic effect. Some say it’s calls are hauntingly beautiful, others might argue it sounds like a walking vuvuzela; for members of its own kind, the cries carry a variety of meanings from danger to coordination to love. The crest is said to have been gifted to kings, who would hold it at specific angles in a breeze so as to produce unique sounds.
Shadhavar travel in small, loose herds of females and young led by a single male while non-competitive males travel in bachelor groups. A herd may be spread over great distances, as long as they can still hear their neighbors’ low frequency “safety” calls. Though they have always been uncommon, their range has shrunk since the last ice age from much of west Asia to limited ranges in the Anatolian plateau in Turkey. The shadhavar first appeared in the mid Pleistocene, sharing a common ancestor with the now extinct rusingoryx, another alcelaphine bovid with a weird hollow skull.