Rhinoceros or rhinos are large, herbivorous mammals that are commonly identified by their horned snouts. The word rhinoceros were derived from Greek words in which ‘rhino’ meant[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] nose and ‘ceros’ meant horn.
There are five species and 11 subspecies of rhinos in which some possess two horns while others only have one.
Rhinos use their horns to defend themselves from predators. They also use their horns to guide younger rhinos and to attract other rhinos. Rhinos’ horns are not attached to their skulls, unlike most animals with horns.
Furthermore, the horns of most animals possess a bony core covered by a thin sheath of keratin, a major component of human hair and fingernails. Rhinos’ horns are entirely composed of keratin.
However, their horns are not merely dense clumps of hair.
A computerised tomography (CT) scan exhibited dense mineral deposits of calcium and melanin in the core of the horn. According to scientists from the Ohio University, calcium fortifies the horn whereas melanin protects it from the UV rays of the sun.
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