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Eorodentoeurythus Horn Growth

DEFINITIONS
Medium of growth: a defined line on the rodent's horn, usually within the middle, which indicates where the hornbone fibers are the densest. Secondary sexual characteristic. Grows thicker with age.

Tubercle split: an area in which densely-packed collagen fibers intersect the horn's bottom, making the bottom of the horn appear to be split into two halves. Advances with age.

Prominence shaft: the area in which the front-exterior of the horn protrudes past the front of the horn's bottom. Characteristic of advanced-aged Eorodentoeurythii and those that live in extreme snowy or rugged conditions.

Mating shovel: in males, a "shovel"-like structure used for sexual display and to attract mates. Grows larger in size with maturity.


STAGES
Infancy (birth - 1 year): horn is almost equilateral-triangle shaped, reddish color mostly except for white tip at the top. No visible split or shaft, but a slight medium of growth is visible.

Pre-adolescence (1 - 6 years): horn grows more vertically. Orange-ish color extends down to the midst of the horn while the reddish color composes the bottom half of the horn. Medium becomes more defined, and so does the tubercle.

Adolescence (7 - 11 years): puberty occurs. In both sexes, the tubercle is more visible and the medium of growth even more defined. The red color starts to decrease towards the bottom while the orange starts to dominate the horn; a yellow tip at the top emerges. In males, the horn starts to develop a "mating shovel" while it curves much more slanted backwards. In females, the horn is much like the pre-adolescent horn with the adolescent growth pattern.

Post-adolescent/Sub-adult (12 - 16 years): puberty is finished, and yellow starts to dominate the top 25% of the rodent's horn. Prominence shaft is now much more visible. ♂️: horn curves much more backwards. ♀️: horn simply grows more vertically.

Adult (17 - 38 years): this is the age range when the yellow, orange, and red colors are perfectly distributed within the horn, with each color consisting up to one-third of the horn at a time. The tubercle shaft is perfectly aligned with the bottom of the horn and the prominence shaft is very visible. ♂️: horn's "mating shovel" becomes wider and more robustly-refined in shape.

Elder (39 - 44 years): the horn becomes yellow in color and slowly starts to decompose, splitting along where the tubercle split intersects the horn. If not split yet, the horn immediately curves backwards and medium of growth is extremely and overly defined and visible from a great distance, indicating breakage instead of density now. ♂️: the mating shovel starts to incline at an angle of 15 degrees from the rest of the horn and slowly start to grow again but with weaker bone formation. Split of the horn results in abandonment by social hierarchy and soon, a slow death from inability to function normally.

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