Frederick F. Casale III, age 7, of Staten Island, New York, for his question:

Are horns different from antlers?

Yes they are. A gentle cow grows two curved horns and keeps the same pair all her life. A handsome stag sheds his huge proud antlers late in the fall    and grows a new set for next year What's more, horns and antlers are made from different materials. A horn is a hollow bone covered with a shell of material called keratin. Actually this outer shell is somewhat like the material used to create beaks and claws, turtle shells and finger nails

Keratin grows from a special layer of outer skin but the antlers of a stag grow from his forehead bone they are made of solid bone. When a new set starts to grow, the bumps are covered with flesh skin and hair. This velvety coat covers the antlers until they grow to their full size then the velvet peels off and the stag has his full set of bony antlers.