A Possible Antler Rudiment on the Nasal Bones of a Whitetail Deer (Odocoileus virginianus borealis)

Multiple antlers springing independently from the frontal bones have frequently been described and depicted in a wide variety of deer. For example, Caton (1877) illustrates triplet antlers in a European red deer; Rorig (1901) describes a number of cases, besides showing three heads with 3 horns and one with 4 independent antlers in the European red deer, while Seton (1909) depicts triplet antlers in an elk, whitetail and mule deer. The accessory antlers described range all the way from nearly perfect reduplications of one or both of the antlers, located close to the normal antler pedicles, to very abnormal, much deformed or stunted antlers situated at more remote points on the frontal bones. Occasionally an abnormal third antler is situated midway between the normal antlers. Fossil deer of the genus Cranioceras and subgenus Procranioceras possess an occipital horn in addition to the paired frontal pedicles and antlers, while Sinclairomeryx sinclairi possesses, in addition to the frontal antlers, small, paired excrescences or bosses on the surfaces of the anterior ends of the nasals (Frick, 1937). It is undetermined, however, whether these nasal horns in fossil deer were covered by deciduous velvet or permanent skin. In recent Cervidae, growth of both normal and abnormal antlers appears to be confined to the frontal bones, as well as occasionally to neighboring parts of the parietals, except for three instances of abnormal bony growths observed upon the nasal bones. Dixon (1934) has described two of these and the third is reported here. In the case of two mule deer in the Yosemite Valley, Dixon noted a bony process, interpreted as an antler, growing out of the center of the face between the level of the eyes and the nostrils. In the first of these deer, this accessory antler first made its appearance as a single spike about midway between the eyes and the nostrils, but in the next year it developed two prongs with a height of 2 inches and a diameter of one inch at the base. This antler apparently shed its velvet to become hard and polished, and in the following spring it was replaced by a knob covered with velvet. In March of the final year, at the time of the animal's death, through an infection, this deer had shed his two main antlers, but the third one was still firmly attached. Upon examination of the skull, it was learned that the third antler was attached to "a socket in every way similar to the ones from which the 2 main antlers spring." A year later, in December, another buck was observed in the Yosemite Valley that had a similar, small, rudimentary third antler situated almost directly between the eyes. This antler, about 14 inches high, was at that date "out of the velvet and was hard and white like the polished tip of an ordinary antler." Although scientific proof could not be adduced, Dixon surmised that this buck was one of the progeny of the previous animal. Observations.-A whitetail deer (Odocoileus virginianus borealis) described here also possesses what may possibly be an antler rudiment situated between the eyes. This deer was killed in November, 1950, in New Brunswick, Canada, Feb., 1952 73