Rhinoceros
While one would think that a rhinoceros isn’t really among the mysterious animals of our time, you’d be surprised how many people were surprised they existed. All throughout Africa, tribes knew of the rhino and it was never a big deal. Rhinos do not navigate much outside of the mid to lower African and South Asian regions, and you won’t find many in the wild outside of these areas today. Yet they never really seemed to be present in places like Egypt. Thus, most humans that did live in Africa’s biggest region centuries ago were unaware of their existence for a long time. Pliny the Elder eventually described one that he heard about.
He claimed: “[It] has the head of a stag, the feet of an elephant, and the tail of a boar…it makes a deep sound in lowing and has a single black horn which projects from the middle of its forehead.” This was his description in the 1st century AD, but he never once saw a rhino and only gave this description based on what he was told. He was likely given this description by people from Ethiopia or India. Both were in a trade partnership with Rome at the time, so that would have made sense. Pliny also believed Rhinos were natural enemies with the elephant. This was later tested in Portugal in the 1500s, and the elephant ran off immediately.