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  Joanna July 7, 2016 at 7:18am

  Pet Rock, during the medieval period in Europe, 'unicorn horn' was highly prized as it was believed to be able to miraculously neutralize all poisons. In the inventories of aristocratic castles/houses, it was common to see 'unicorn horn' listed there. The very wealthy had whole goblets made of unicorn horn and only drank from them (presumably, attempted poisoning was commonplace) while the less wealthy had pendants made of unicorn horn which they could dip into their drinking cups.

  From analysis, many of these 'unicorn horn' artifacts proved to have been made of Narwhal tusk. ;)
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    AlternateEarth > Joanna July 7, 2016 at 1:42pm

    ok Joanna I'll search around but suddenly there is new info about a lot of stuuf-but do you remember narwhals being shown in pics/paintings or talked about in schools?  were they almost extinct or thought to be extinct?
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      Joanna > AlternateEarth July 7, 2016 at 1:46pm

      Yes, I remember them from school (some 40+ years ago) and from a marine life book I had as a kid. I was always fascinated with whales and dolphins, so recall the pictures of them quite clearly. Back then, whaling was still legal, and *many* types of whales were endangered or on the brink of extinction, before whaling bans came into force around the world. 
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        AlternateEarth > Joanna July 7, 2016 at 4:00pm

        ok-I don't remember and I liked books about nature and animals and apparently there are a lot of people who don't remember narwhals either
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  Feather Winger July 4, 2016 at 12:08pm

  The "unicorn of the ocean," the narwhal (Monodon monoceros) is one of the rarest whales in the world. Narwhals are very elusive and mysterious in nature, and very distinct in appearance due to the large horn-like tusk on their faces. The tusk is actually a tooth that grows from the upper jaw of male narwhals.

  Diet

  Narwhals consume squid, fish and shrimp.

  Population

  Narwhal population estimates indicate around 45,000-50,000 individuals.

  Range

  Narwhals are mostly found in the Atlantic and Russian waters of the Arctic. They have been known to travel around Greenland to eastern Russia.

  http://www.defenders.org/narwhal/basic-facts
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    AlternateEarth > Feather Winger July 4, 2016 at 4:52pm

    and -remembering the paintings in books of the world's whales-narwhals were NOT pictured and I also have a memory of whalers claiming to have seen the unicorns of they sea, a myth!! like the giant squids-maybe I should just accept it
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    AlternateEarth > Feather Winger July 4, 2016 at 2:10pm

    since when?  I saw the search results but to never have been exposed to them in school-after all Greenland is so close to n america-old whaling fleets used to go up there-this is creepy