The wood are Organe S osseous ramified big size present on the head of animals like the stag and clean to this family of Mammifère S that one calls the Cervidé S. In the majority of these Espèce S, the male alone carries wood which falls and pushes back each year to reach their full development during the period of Rut. Wood play a part of secondary Sexual character but do not have other utility for the life of the animal. In the Reindeer, the male and the female carry wood. However, the wood of the male reindeer are much larger than those of the reindeer female.

Cervidé having carried the wood of bigger size was the Megaloceros , now extinct. The current species carrying wood most important is the dash (or moose).

From the anatomical point of view, wood are very different from the horn S: they are vascularized osseous bodies and Caduque S, which falls and pushes back each year, and not of sheaths corneas recovering ankle osseous. The growth proceeds continuously over a year. During their growth which begins in spring, wood are initially covered with a tegumentary fabric (the velvet) which ensures protection, the Vascularisation and the Innervation of these bodies. This fabric is desiccated and fall when the osseous growth is completed (towards the end of the summer). Wood, become a died fabric, will remain with naked for all the period of rut. After the period of rut, at the end of the winter, wood is detached from the Crâne and its site remains marked by a pedicle until the growth of the new growths.

One calls horns and tines the branches of the wood of deer tribe. Contrary to a spread belief, the number of horns does not have a direct relationship with the age of the animal (since indeed, wood fall and push back each year).

Prehistoric use

The wood of stag was an important material as of the Paléolithique superior. Because of its hardness, it initially was used with manufacture as tools sharp and perforating (point of Sagaie S, Harpon S, needles with eye,…). With the Neolithic , one made use of it to manufacture peaks, hammers, handles for the blades in Silex, of the intermediate elements for emmencher the polished axes, etc One continued to use it until the Moyen-âge, in particular for the manufacture of comb S.

References

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Kenneth Thomson | FC Senec | David Brooks | Mr Chouchani | Albert Baert