At the same time each species of the cervidae has its special characters in the antlers, in shape and branching, and it would be impossible to attribute these to differences in mode of fighting: they are due to mutation.
"Hormones and Heredity"
J. T. Cunningham
They are more attenuated in the chevrotians or deerlets, of which our Indian mouse-deer is an example; in the cervidae they are more rudimentary, detached from the carpus, and are suspended free and low down, forming the little hoof-points behind; and a little above the proper hoofs in these the two large metacarpals are more or less joined or fused into one bone, and they are still more so in the camel, in which the fore and little finger bones are entirely absent.
"Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon"
Robert A. Sterndale
Of the former there is a sub-genus-Hemitragus-which have no feet-pits, but have a muffle and occasionally four mammae, which form a connecting link with the cervidae.
"Natural History of the Mammalia of India and Ceylon"
Robert A. Sterndale