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Antler comes from the Old French antoillier (see present French : "Andouiller", from ant-, meaning before, oeil, meaning eye and-ier, a suffix indicating an action or state of being) [3] [4] possibly from some form of an unattested Latin word *anteocularis, "before the eye" [5] (and applied to the word for "branch" or "horn" [4]).
A pair of horns on a male impala Anatomy of an animal's horn. A horn is a permanent pointed projection on the head of various animals that consists of a covering of keratin and other proteins surrounding a core of live bone. Horns are distinct from antlers, which are not permanent.
True horns are found mainly among: Ruminant artiodactyls. Antilocapridae ; Bovidae (cattle, goats, antelopes etc.). Giraffidae: Giraffids have a pair of skin covered bony bumps on their heads, called ossicones. Cervidae: Most deer have antlers, which are not true horns due to lacking a bone core and made of keratin.
The impala uses horns to compete for resources. In biology, a weapon is a specialized physical trait that is used by animals to compete with other individuals for resources. [1] Most commonly, the term refers to structures that males use to fight other males off for access to mates. [2]
female reindeer with antlers. It's always easy to tell bucks from does in many of the deer species, because bucks (male deer) have antlers and does (female deer) don't.
Most modern pecorans (with the exception of the Moschidae) have one of four types of cranial appendages: horns, antlers, ossicones, or pronghorns. [6] True horns have a bone core that is covered in a permanent sheath of keratin. They are indicative of Bovidae. Horns develop in the periosteum over the frontal bone, and can be curved or straight. [4]
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] Growth occurs at the tip, initially as cartilage that is then mineralized to become bone. Once the antler has achieved its full size, the velvet is lost and the antler's bone dies.
The horns also make the animals a prized game trophy, which has led to the near-extinction of the two northern species. As an introduced species Between 1969 and 1977, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in the US intentionally released 95 gemsbok into its state's White Sands Missile Range [ 14 ] and that population is now estimated ...