The Siberian unicorn once roamed among humans and survived in Eastern Europe and Western Asia until at least 39,000 years ago, around the same time as Neanderthals and early modern humans.

The Sierian unicorn once roamed among humans, emerging in eastern Europe and western Asia until at least 39,000 years ago, around the same time as Neanderthals and early modern humans.

An extinct giant rhinoceros, sometimes described as a “Sierian unicorn,” lingered on the planet far longer than scientists previously thought, new research shows.

A study published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution says the furry creature once roamed among humans, emerging in eastern Europe and western Asia until at least 39,000 years ago — around the same time as Neanderthals and early modern humans.

The report’s authors have not responded to a request for comment.

The latest findings used radiotracer dating and genetic analysis of 23 rhino specimens to reveal the life of the mysterious 3.8-tonne Elasmotherium siƄiricum, previously thought to have gone extinct around 200,000 years ago.

They suggest that the “Sierian unicorn,” which is believed to have existed in present-day Russia and had a range that extended into areas of Mongolia, northern China and Kazakhstan, became extinct because of environmental changes that affected the types of grasses and pastures it used to eat, the study authors wrote in Conʋersation.

The animal, whose horn could measure up to a meter in length, found it difficult to give up its grass-based diet, the authors wrote.

“Relatives like the woolly rhino had always eaten a more balanced variety of plants and were much less affected by a change in habitat,” they wrote.

They added that humans were not the cause of their extinction.

“In addition to this, Elasmotherium’s persistently restricted geographic range (also proƄnally linked to its specialized habitat), as well as its low population size and slow reproductive rate associated with its large body size, would have predisposed it to extinction in the face of the threat of environmental change,” the authors wrote in the study.

Scientists say the loss of SiƄer’s unicorn offers a useful case study that “shows the poor resilience of rhinos to environmental change.”