Rhinoceros - Horn or Tusk?

Dan Bimrose

During a particular boring evening at work the question came up as to whether the protrusion from the snout is a horn or a tusk. I had a feeling it might be a horn but I chose to play the devils advocate and argued on behalf of the tusk.

My main argument being that I thought that perhaps horns must protrude from the top of the skull and also must appear in two's.

Not really knowing the answer we asked a complete stranger who said flat out that it was a horn. Not only did he say this but he also told us that it was made out of hair.

"Really?" my buddy and I replied. When he was out of earshot my buddy said, "I don't know about all that."

This added a whole new dimension to our argument. I decided that I would not rest until I had an answer.

My first step was to find the definition of horn and tusk. From m-w.com we learn that a horn is 1 a: one of the usu. paired bony processes that arise from the head of many ungulates and that are found in some extinct mammals and reptiles:. This same definition later references the rhinoceros specifically. I guess this answers the first part of the question.

Being curious I decided to look up the definition of tusk just for the heck of it. I discovered that a tusk is 1: an elongated greatly enlarged tooth (as of an elephant or walrus) that projects when the mouth is closed and serves especially for digging food or as a weapon; broadly : a long protruding tooth.  I was not expecting the whole tooth aspect of this definition. A rather interesting fact indeed and I can not wait to share this bit of information with my co-worker.

Now to whether or not a rhinoceros HORN is made of hair, wikipedia.com gives us this answer, "The rhino is prized for its horn. The horns of a rhinoceros are made of keratin, the same type of protein that makes up hair and fingernails, but the horn is not itself made of hair as previously believed." I guess the stranger in my story did have some knowledge of the subject even though he was using bad or outdated information.

By the way I also discovered that depending on the species of Rhinoceros that they can have one or two horns.

Article submitted Thursday, June 19, 2008
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