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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]
A leading hypothesis for why female caribou evolved to grow antlers suggests their antlers are the result of evolutionary changes due to their habitat. Cold tundra with a notable lack of resources ...
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 ...
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.
Males grow longer and thicker antlers which they use for fighting. Their antlers can grow to be as large as 51 inches long, whereas a female's antlers only grow to around 20 inches long.
While an antler is growing it is covered with highly vascular skin called velvet, which supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing bone. [62] Antlers are considered one of the most exaggerated cases of male secondary sexual traits in the animal kingdom, [63] and grow faster than any other mammal bone. [64]
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.
Antlers grow very quickly every year on the bulls. As the antlers grow, they are covered in thick velvet, filled with blood vessels and spongy in texture. The antler velvet of the barren-ground caribou and the boreal woodland caribou is dark chocolate brown. [126] The velvet that covers growing antlers is a highly vascularised skin.