Antlers vs. Horns
Posted by David Mushal on October 31, 2004
Q: You say that horns are simply hollow keratin tubes. However, I recently saw two water buffalo fight; one broke the other's horn, and blood started spurting out. When the dust had cleared and the blood flow stopped, we examined the remaining stub and the broken bit. Both were solid all through. Are water buffalo horns an entirely different thing from either antlers or Bovidae horns?
A: You're right that the base of the Water Buffalo's horn is solid, but the horn itself is hollow, not solid. The horn grows from a living base that is richly supplied with blood and if the horn is knocked off, or damaged, the base will often bleed.
Although the visual part of your own nails are not supplied with blood, the base is and if you damage the entire nail, the base may bleed profusely.
Water Buffalo horns are similar to cow horns you'd see on any farm in North America, they're just shaped a bit differently.
John Wiessinger ( November 5, 2004)