Comparison of the structure and mechanical properties of bovine femur bone and antler of the North American elk (Cervus elaphus canadensis)

Variability and anisotropy of mechanical behavior of cortical bone in tension and compression

“…or feature on the overall elastic properties (Currey, 1988a;Saha and Hayes, 1977). More advanced models, accounting for shape and orientation effects of individual constituents (Currey, 1984;Sevostianov and Kachanov, 2000) as well as the interaction between collagen and mineral contents (Chen et al, 2009) were reported. Despite this variety, most have one common feature: all the approaches were related to a fundamental concept of the theory of composite materials -the rule of mixture.…”

“…Sevostianov and Kachanov (2000) calculated the elastic modulus using a modified formula that is commonly employed for high-elastic-contrast composite-like materials and achieved good agreement. On the other hand, McKittrick and coauthors (Chen et al, 2009;Novitskaya et al, 2011) calculated the effective elastic modulus using a modified Voigt scheme for both elk antlers and bovine cortical bone. However, their results showed a large disparity with the experimental data.…”

Organic and mechanical properties of Cervidae antlers: a review

“…The bending strength of rehydrated elk (Cervus canadenis) antler is lower than that of most other species of deer. Finally, they showed that the fracture toughness of rehydrated antler is more than two times greater than that of bovine femur and that that of dry antler is also higher than that of bovine femur (Chen et al 2009). …”

“…Many authors have shown that the bone composition of primary osteons is stronger than that of secondary osteons (Currey 2002;Landete-Castillejos et al 2007). As antlers are undergoing little mechanical force during development, it seems unlikely that secondary osteons would develop under these conditions (Chen et al 2009). Even if a few secondary osteons can be formed, it is more by a process of antler modeling rather than remodeling (osteoclastic/osteoblastic couple), which needs more time to set up.…”

“…In their study, Chen et al (2009) compared the mechanical properties of elk antler (Cervus elaphus canadensis) with those of the bovine femur. Through their experiences, they were able to draw several conclusions, the first being that the mineral content of compact bone (56.9 % of minerals) is greater than that of cancellous bone (43.4 %), and less than the bovine femur (67 % minerals).…”