Deer (family Cervidae) are hoofed ruminant mammals found on every continent except Antarctica and Australia. Males of most species grow and shed antlers annually — the fastest-growing bone tissue in the animal kingdom. The family includes white-tailed deer, red deer, mule deer, roe deer, fallow deer, sika deer, and elk (wapiti). Deer have been hunted since the Paleolithic era and remain the most widely harvested large game animal worldwide. Every part of the animal has traditional uses: venison for food, hide for leather and buckskin, antler for tools and craft objects, bone for implements, sinew for cordage and bowstrings, and tallow for candles and waterproofing. Deer antler was the dominant tool material of the Mesolithic period, and brain-tanned buckskin was the preferred clothing leather of North American indigenous peoples and frontier settlers.