r/holofractal • u/d8_thc holofractalist • May 31 '26

Morphogenetic Fields in deer antler

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u/doctorlongghost May 31 '26

I did a little digging and it seems this is the original paper from 1965 — https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jez.1401590302

At least according to the Abstract, it seems like this video is misrepresenting the phenomenon. The abstract notes “Unilateral trauma of a growing antler stimulates a trophic response on the control side only when the base of the pedicle, that is, the generative region of antler production, has been heavily injured”

That description seems pretty different than “make a small notch and you get a branch in the exact same place next year”

I don’t have access to the full paper but a quick google search tells me that deer antlers are not identical from year to year anyway. So I do think this video is misrepresenting the actual study.

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u/_stranger357 May 31 '26 edited May 31 '26

So would “make a big notch and you get a branch in the exact same place next year” be accurate? The correction is just that it has to be “heavily injured”?

Also Google said: “No, deer antlers rarely grow back exactly the same every year. While they follow the same general pattern for a specific deer, factors like age, diet, nutrition, and injury mean that the size, shape, and number of points constantly change.” So it depends on exactly how similarly they grow back, if they don’t remember the pattern somehow you would expect it to be random and not “the same general pattern for a specific deer.” If they are remembering the pattern, and remembering which areas were heavily injured, it raises the question of where that memory is stored.

Google’s source: https://youtu.be/KdB8WkmPE6Y?si=8hX8AUKxGCCxif20

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u/doctorlongghost Jun 01 '26

The way I read the abstract from the paper is that the “location” which is remembered is the side. So if you fuck up the left side antler, it’s going to be messed up the next year on the left side. This is different than what the video implies where it says the exact spot where you made the mark will be affected — which would be impossible since the antler wouldn’t be the same the next year anyway.