Abstract
The effects of rotating, inverting, or mincing grafts of presumptive pedicle/antler periostea have been investigated in young male fallow deer. When discs of frontal periosteum were rotated 180° and replaced onto their pedicle regions, half of the resultant antlers grew in reversed orientation, while the others gave rise to appendages of indeterminate polarity. Transplantation of periosteal discs upside down beneath scalp or foreleg skin induced antlers of normal proximodistal orientation. Grafts inverted on top of intact pedicle protuberances with their anterior‐posterior and medial‐lateral axes in register produced antlers of normal lengths but with more points than in controls. If the antlerogenic periosteum is minced and scrambled before transplantation back onto the pedicle region, it is capable of producing an organized antler. It is concluded that the histogenesis of pedicle and antler resides in the frontal periosteum, and that the anterior‐posterior axis of antler orientation is determined by this tissue. The proximodistal axis of elongation is established in relation to the overlying skin. Other morphogenetic influences as yet to be identified contribute to the normalization of antler size and shape in the prospective sites of antlerogenesis on the head.