Antlers

Antlers, bony outgrowths from the frontal bones of almost all the members of the deer family. Except in the reindeer, they are restricted to the males, and are secondary sexual characters used as weapons in fighting for possession of the females. They appear as a pair of knobs covered with dark skin, from which the bony tissue is developed. In the year after that of birth, the antlers remain unbranched conical 'beams.' In the following spring, the previous growth having been meanwhile shed, the antlers grow to a larger size, and form their first branch or 'brow.' Year by year the number of branches or 'tines' increases, and more than sixty have been counted on some magnificent heads. The soft hairy skin which secures their rapid annual growth is known as the 'velvet,' and its accidental injury affects the development of the antlers. Growth ceases when the blood-supply is cut off by the development of a tubercled burr at the base, and the deer then rub off the dry skin and leave the bone bare. The antlers are shed, in many cases at least, annually, after the breeding period. The various types of antlers are used as convenient characters in distinguishing the different genera. Investigation of fossil forms has shown that the gradual development of antlers exhibited in the individual life of the deer is a recapitulation of their progressive historic evolution. See HORN, DEER, RED DEER, SEXUAL SELECTION, WAPITI.