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Show 1902.] OP HORNS AND ANTLERSi 217 originally, as still shown by the mode of growth of the youngest stage, no hard-and-fast line can be drawn between antler and pedicle, and even now in recent species part of the bona fide pedicle itself (i. e., that part which is not infiltrated with cartilage) is annually destroyed and regenerated, although not " shed." It is safe to presume that the earliest Cervince had long pedicles and short antlers, or rather prickets and broaches. The further development into long and branched antlers is an instance of the morphologically and pathologically well-known fact that organs which are originally due to hypertrophic causes are liable to grow to excess. There is no maximum limit to the size of antlers and to the number of tines in the Stag, although old individuals are liable to " decline." The earliest typically Cervine creatures are referred to the genus Palcpomeryx. The somewhat mixed synonymy of geneia and species has to a great extent been unravelled by Roerig, who has described and figured every known specimen. Finality is, however, impossible until we know for certain whether the separately found pedicles and antlers, or both together, are successive stages of one species, or represent the armaments of several adult species, or geneia, which did not pass beyond the respective stages of broachers, forkers, &c. Two frontal pedicles and two pedicles with simple, low, spiked antler-fragments are known from the Lower Miocene of Hessler. They show already a slight burr, proof that the tips were shed. Roerig, assuming that these fragments and the following specimens form the successive stages or " heads " of one and the same species, refers them to Dicrocerus furcatus. The second stage, or "head," is represented by typical broaches, with a distinct little burr, from the Dinotherium-sunds. They are referred b}^ Roerig to D. furcatus, second stage or head, equivalent to D. elegans of Lartet = D. dicranocerus of Kaup. The third stage, or head, with a thick, somewhat compressed antler ending in a short fork, is D. furcatus from Steinheim, Mid- Miocene. Another specimen, from the same locality, has a deeper fork and a thicker burr-D. furcatus, fourth head. The burr, not sharply marked off, but rather a thick swelling, bears a striking resemblance to a specimen of an immature Antilocapra in the Cambridge Museum. The bony fork of course excludes any further resemblance and affinity. The last stage, with a gracefully forked long antler, with typical burr upon the still long pedicle, is represented by D. elegans from Saman, Mid-Miocene; it is possibly the final head of D. furcatus : synonymous with Procervulus Gaudry, Micro-meryx Lartet ? The Neotropical Subulo s. Coassus e. g. C. rufus still remains in the broacber stage ; and Cervulus, the Muntjac, is on incipient forker. Hydropotes inermis alone, of China, has no outgrowth whatever. The possession of deciduous, large, many-branched antlers .•(mounts to an enormous waste of energy and material during the PBOC. ZOOL. Soc-1902, VOL. I. No. XV, 15 |
