214 ANIMAL PEDIGREES 



during the summer the new antlers sprout out, and 

 growing rapidly attain their full size at the pairing 

 season in August or September : they persist 

 throughout the winter, and are shed in the follow- 

 ing spring. The antlers of the first year are small 

 and unbranched ; those of the second year are 

 larger and branched; in the antlers of the third 

 year three tynes or points are present ; in the 

 fourth year four points, and so on until the full 

 size of the antler and the full number of points are 

 attained. 



The geological history of antlers has been worked 

 out by Professor Gaudry and by Professor Boyd 

 Dawkins, and is of great interest. In the Lower 

 Miocene and earlier deposits no antlers have been 

 found. In the genus Procervulus from the Middle 

 Miocene, a pair of small, erect, branched, but non- 

 deciduous antlers were present, intermediate in 

 many respects between the antlers of deer and the 

 horns of antelopes. From slightly later deposits 

 a stag has been found with forked deciduous 

 antlers, which however do not appear to have 

 had more than two points. In Upper Miocene 

 times antlered ruminants were more abundant, and 

 the antlers themselves larger and more complex : 

 while from Pliocene deposits very numerous fossils 

 have been obtained showing a gradual increase in 

 the size of the antlers and the number of their 

 branches down to the present time. 



Antlers are therefore, geologically considered, 

 very recent acquisitions : at their first appearance 

 they were small, and either simple or branched once 



