Deer and elk antlers are real bones, and the velvet covering the growing antlers is a modified extension of the head’s normal skin. The antlers are the most rapid growing postnatal bone known. When the antlers are shed, a small piece of the outer part of the peduncle is lost. This shortens the outer length of the stalk more than the inner length, causing the antlers to have an ever-increasing expansion each year.
It warmed my crooked little heart to see Mike Taylor, noted sauropodologist and disdainer-of-mammal-heads, return mammal skulls to the blog’s front page yesterday. Naturally I had to support my friend and colleague in this difficult time, when he may be experiencing confusing feelings regarding nasal turbinates, multi-cusped teeth, and the dentary-squamosal jaw joint.
These are out as I consider how to reorganise my office. The pig skull came from a hog-roast, and was very crumbly by the time I had prepped it out. It’s subsequently had an accident when it fell off a loudspeaker in my youngest son’s room, so it’s not the pig it once was.
Get your red-cyan glasses — you do have some, right? — and check out this glorious image. Best full-screen it, it’s worth seeing!