As illuminated by Richard Goss, "The antlers of deer are so improbable that if they had not evolved in the first place they would never have been conceived even in the wildest fantasies of the most imaginative biologists"[1]

Unlike the true horns of bovid animals, they are seasonally grown and shed in a cycle. Thus, the antlers of deer are some of the fastest growing mammalian skeletal tissue. Fully complete and fully successful regeneration of bone is rarely seen in mammals. Yes, this is why the antler fascinates me, the cervid manipulates stem cells in an organized program to create a branching bony structure whose main evolutionary purpose is to grow for the sake of growth. Neither do they form a substrate for muscles, nor do they protect internal organs, articulate with other bones, or support the body. They do not prove to be a flawless weapon, either. On occasion, fighting cervids will interlock antlers and become entangled with each other. Hunters have discovered corpses of deer who have died from this inescapable lock, the animals eventually dying from the inhibition of gaining nutrients, or succumbing to predators. This, of course, is not their "fault", it's a rare occurrence, such events are a result of evolutionary processes having drawbacks, nothing is perfect. I truly believe it's not their fault. It just branches and grows, and the deer can't control it. It's just part of their programming. They don't deserve it. The cycle simply continues without the mind, without the body.