Deer antlers can "remember" damage from previous years, despite being shed and regrown every season. Dr. Michael Levin (Tufts University) explained this phenomenon in our recent interview, and described why this process is so mind-bending from a developmental point of view. He also emphasizes that this process has only been anecdotally described, lacking formal scientific inquiry. The reason for this is not because the question isn't interesting, but because designing an experiment to test this is extremely time-consuming and expensive. By the very nature of the problem, a study looking into this would take 10+ years, which most scientists and PhD students simply don't have the time to explore. #deer #deerhunting #elkhunting #biology
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"You defeated me last mating season, but my antlers have improved since last we met."
Crazy. Does this mean that deer farms could artificially create multipoint bucks by scoring their antlers the year before?
The dude with 35 YEARS of antlers probably has no clue just how much research material he gave them with those. But im sure he played a major role in the field
"My antlers have doubled since the last time we met, Count."
To note, this only occurs in the four or so months the antlers are in velvet, where it still has blood and nerves attached. Effectively, deer need to feel the injury in order to reinforce that section for the next years growth. Weirdly enough humans have a somewhat similar phenomenon where our bodies reinforce our bones with more calcium at the point of damage to make them stronger; the difference of course being we don't need to shed a bone to do that.
This is why science fascinates me. Decades of work going into a single experiment that is unrepeatable!
Be sure to check out the full interview for some additional context and other mind-blowing facts from Michael Levin!
Morphic antler resonance Boom! I’ll take my guest authorship now thank you
Halo shield charge up sound
So if you had farm raised deer you could deliberately etch the antlers in specific places to grow designer racks?
Meanwhile petco sells a 2 inch piece for 20k
Amazing data retention bravo not letting that go to waste. ❤
Obviously the regeneration instructions are updated to include the new changes, the cells responsible for regeneration "growth" are likely constantly firing so the change likely just updates where they need to drive to ala cell GPS that change is also likely propogated through the entire supply of cells. So it's likely they remember the structure rather than the change, so once you update the road it becomes muscle memory literally. Less they remember the change itself and more like they remember the road.
Would have to happen during velvet which is one thing that wasn’t mentioned here. After they loose their velvet the antlers are essentially dead, they have finished growing for the year
I wonder where the line is drawn between creating more antler and shutting down the process of growing antler. I’ve seen many deer with weird growth patterns. Missing tines or smaller than the other side. Wondering if a minor injury has a memory of scar tissue but a major injury is like killing the nerve.
This is all news to me. I learned something new today.
Its kinda like what happens when you produce unique crystal structure. The first time you do it it takes for example 20min but everytime after it takes 1 to 2min.
A fascinating episode with a fascinating guest!!
Its brain cells remembered the nick on the horns almost like adapting before it has to adapt
Yeah this is bullshit. Antlers don't grow like that.