574 



first fossil deer showing a separate pedicle, liie latter is veiy long', 

 like that of the existing Mmitjac. 



In accordance with this observation is the fact that in Sivatlierinae 

 no rose can be detected near the base of their gigantic and lainified 

 antlers, which therefore as a whole might be considered as pedicles. 



Starting from the fact that in recent Giraffes the small hornstumj)s 

 permanently retain their covering of haiiy skin, the same may have 

 occnrred in their extinct allies: the Sivatlierinae, and perhaps likewise 

 in the first antlered ancestors of Deer. The separation of the latter's 

 antlers into pedicle and beam, combined with the phenomena of 

 yearly shedding and regeneration, I lie "rul)bing" of the "velvet", 

 in short the entire pi'ocess of the renovation of the antlers, so incon- 

 venient and dangerons for the stag, might then have developed 

 from a similar prifnitive condition as that in Sivatlierinae, wheie 

 the fronlal bony onlgrowths, clad with hairy skin, must gradnally 

 have increased in size and complication. If one ajiplies to the latter 

 the designation "pedicle", il follows thai for them jnsi the contrary 

 might be Irne of what is implied in R<)i,sf'nE"s assertion: viz. the 

 |»edicle wonld have originated as a weapon and only lost this fnnc- 

 tion in the (liraffes proper. 



In the second place 1 cannot see siilïicient reason for accepting 

 such an intimate and strict connection between the regression of the 

 tnsks in the npper jaw of the slag and the progression of their 

 antlers, as necessarily follows from the snppositiori that a surplus 

 of growing energy should pass from those tnsks to the frontal bones. 



Against this hypothesis it may be objected that the male Proto- 

 ceratinae as well as the Dinoceratidae were provided with powerful 

 tusks, largely jirotruding from their mouths, and yet had a whole 

 range of paired and single bony knobs and projections on the roof 

 of their skulls, somewhat like those still found in the (male) wart- 

 hogs. Among deer the male Muntjac still possesses strong tusks 

 projecting downward and outward out of the mouth from under its 

 upper lip, and yet carries well-developed, though simple antlers. 



There is moreover little reason for the assumption that in (/avi- 

 cornia the same course of events should have taken place as in 

 Cervicornia, viz. a regression of huge tusks, going hand in hand 

 with an increased growth and a higher complication of frontal 

 appendages, and yet the origin of these excrescences may be attri- 

 buted to similar causes in all Horn- and Antlerbearing Ungulates. 



On the oilier hand there is nothing incomprehensible in the fact 

 that the upper tnsks of Deer should have been reduced, as soon as 

 they were no longer used as weapons, because the male Deer got accus- 



