The “horns” of the pronghorn are comprised of a slender, laterally-flattened blade of bone which grows from the frontal bones of the skull, forming a permanent core. Skin covers the bony cores and develops into a keratinous sheath which is shed and regrown on an annual basis. The horn sheaths of the pronghorn are branched, each sheath possessing a forward pointing tine (hence the name pronghorn). The horns of males are well developed; in females, they are either small, misshapen, or absent.
