downward curvature of the cylindrical brow-tyne; and I have therefore named the animal to which they belonged Cervus verticornis.
Characters.—The base of the antler is set on to the head very obliquely (fig. 1); and immediately above it there springs the cylindrical brow-tyne, b, which in this specimen (fig. 1) has been torn away from the antler before it was deposited in the ferruginous gravel. Its sudden downward and outward curvature is shown in the magnificent antler found by the Rev. J. Gunn, and now in the Norwich Museum (fig. 2), and which has been described by Dr. Falconer[1]. Immediately above the brow-tyne the beam is more or less cylindrical; but it becomes gradually more and more flattened until it gives off the oval second tyne, c; and it does not again recover its rounded section. A third, flattened tyne (fig. 1, d) springs on the anterior side of the antler; and immediately above it the broad expanded crown is proved, by the convergence of the compact outer walls of the antler at e, to have terminated in at least two points, and possibly more. No tyne is thrown off on the posterior side of the antler; but the sweep is uninterrupted from the antler-base to the first point of the crown. The beam is slightly flattened at the front where the brow-tyne, b, is given off. In all the specimens which have not been rolled, the surface is traversed by broad and shallow grooves. The second tyne, c, is, in all the specimens, set on in a different plane from the brow-tyne.
A secondary brow-tyne is given off close to the base in one large antler in the British Museum. This circumstance, however, is of no more importance in classification than in the parallel case of the Stag. In Mr. Gunn's large specimen in the Norwich Museum a small point or "offer" immediately below the brow-tyne may indicate that, on the older antlers, the development of two brow-tynes was not uncommon.
These antlers differ from those of the Cervus megaceros in the greater curvature downwards of the brow-tyne and the close approximation of the second tyne, c, to b, as well as in the crown being less palmated. The beam also is stouter in proportion to its length.
- ↑ "The specimen is of left side, and consists of the basal portion of a huge horn that had been shed. The brow-antler is given off about 2 inches above the bur, and is curved abruptly downwards and outwards like a huge hook; it is perfectly terete, and the portion remaining shows no appearance of subdivision. It is very boldly channelled on the convex outer side, smooth inwards. The beam above the bur is not quite terete, but oval, with a ridge behind, opposite the brow- antler. The beam then contracts, and becomes nearly cylindrical, and then expands, giving off from the anterior outer side a large antler at about 6–7 inches above the bur, and 414 inches (lower edge) above upper side of brow-antler. The beam is then somewhat flattened in a direction corresponding with that of the brow-antler. Only the section of the base of the median antler seen. A ridge descends from lower edge of median antler, outer side, to the ridge or tuberosity opposite the brow-antler.
"The brow-antler is given off much higher than I have ever seen it in the Irish Elk; the beam less cylindrical than in the latter, and more erect, without the elegant, long, reclinate reach in the latter. The low offset of the median antler is also very different. It appears to indicate a huge Deer, as large as the Irish Elk, but quite distinct."—Palæontographical Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 479.
