PA Freak Antler

[venado]

Here is a picture of a buck killed in PA that has an unusual point coming out above the left eye. It looks like there is a line coming down from the main antler on that side so I wonder if it is off of the primary pedical or has one of its own. I wonder if this is an inheritable trait or just a true freak.

[Bill Gunn]

It's one of them QDM things their trying out....

[venado]

Good thinking Bill. Probably a sneaky evolutionary way to confuse hunters in AR areas where a certain number of points are required on one side..!

[Renegade]

Probably just a freak occurrence. Usually antler deformities come from an injury on the opposite side of the deer before the growing season. But I've also been told by Gary Alt, a former PGC biologist, that an antler pedicle is a very peculiar part (for lack of a better term), that if you were to remove it from the skull and attach it elsewhere that an antler would grow there.

[venado]

I just received photos that show what the third antler looks like. Now we know that it comes from its own pedicle.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

it was probably a spike to begin with!

Alan

[Laturkeyhtr]

Interesting! Must be a QDM thing to want to understand WHY it exists or WHAT causes it.

Thanks Venado for the update.

[GF.]

From a developmental biology standpoint, it's really not that mysterious. It's on par with having six fingers instead of five. If that. Just a few cells that got switched on to do a certain job, either before or after they got isolated from the rest of the cells that got activated in the same way.

On the other hand, anyone who could figure out how to drive that sequence of events - and especially if you could make it happen symmetrically - would doubtless become hugely stinkin' rich in all the businesses that trade in antlers, from trophy 'hunts' to 'traditional medicinals' .

[Laturkeyhtr]

I forget wihch outdoor showed a "unicorn" buck, but it makes me think I would like to see how that third horn grew.