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While an antler is growing, it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone. [6] Antlers are considered one of the most exaggerated cases of male secondary sexual traits in the animal kingdom, [10] and grow faster than any other mammal bone. [11]
When fully developed, antlers are dead bone without a horn or skin covering; they are borne only by adults (usually males, except for reindeer) and are shed and regrown each year. Rhinocerotidae: The "horns" of rhinoceroses are made of keratin, the same substance as fingernails, and grow continuously, but do not have a bone core.
Female reindeer grow antlers that are significantly smaller than their male counterparts. Male reindeer grow antlers as long as 50 inches after multiple seasons of shedding.
Antlers begin to grow in late spring, covered with a highly vascularised tissue known as velvet. Bucks either have a typical or atypical antler arrangement. Typical antlers are symmetrical and the points grow straight up off the main beam. Atypical antlers are asymmetrical and the points may project at any angle from the main beam.
The sexes can be distinguished from each other by the size and shape of their antlers. Male antlers grow more branching points and measure anywhere between 39 inches and 53 inches in beam length ...
Here's a Christmas theory: Santa's sleigh is pulled by all female reindeer! If you wonder why female reindeer have antlers, here's the scientific explanation.
European red deer antlers are distinctive in being rather straight and rugose, with the fourth and fifth tines forming a "crown" or "cup" in larger males. Any tines in excess of the fourth and fifth tines grow radially from the cup, which are generally absent in the antlers of smaller red deer, such as Corsican red deer.
However, both male and female reindeer grow antlers. There are rare cases in other deer species in which the females grow little antlers, but this is usually a result of abnormal hormone levels.