The real Siberian unicorn, Elasmotherium sibiricum.

Tens of thousands of years ago, unicorns did, in fact, exist. They were just more hideous than you’d ever imagine. In real life, the Siberian unicorn looked more like a giant, hairy rhino than a Lisa Frank horse. It fed its six-and-a-half-foot, four-ton frame by eating lots of grass.

The discovery of real unicorns isn’t new, but according to a new study in the American Journal of Applied Science, they roamed the Earth much more recently than previously thought. Researchers from Russia’s Tomsk State University found a Siberian unicorn skull in Kazakhstan and dated it to around 29,000 years ago, disproving the original theory that the species went extinct 350,000 years ago.

So close, yet so far — and still so ugly.