Many aspects of bone's tensile loading response are well documented. However, the processes that cause this response are poorly understood. The nomenclature commonly used to describe this response includes the terms elastic, plastic, yield and Young's modulus. This nomenclature implies that bone is considered to be an elastic-plastic material, and that the knee in the loading curve is due to yielding. In many published studies of its time-dependent mechanical behaviour bone is viewed as a viscoelastic material. However, a few workers have attributed the creep and failure of bone to another process:​ damage accumulation. This thesis extends this latter approach.

To gain a better understanding of bone's mechanical behaviour and the associated processes, a comparative study has been conducted. Two bones with different mechanical responses were used:​ bovine bone (mostly femoral) and antler (from red deer and reindeer). Only tentative suggestions of the cause of this difference are found in the literature. The results of impact, tension, creep and notch sensitivity tests on these materials are described. In some cases the rate-dependence of these results is examined. During many of these tests optical changes that are indicative of damage were observed and recorded. It is concluded that damage accumulation is the main controlling process of the mechanical behaviour for both materials. Anelasticity and fracture also contribute to the mechanical response. The relative importance of these three processes depends on a number of factors, those considered are:​ the material in question, the aspect of the response examined, and the loading rate. The difference between the mechanical response of bovine bone and that of antler is attributed to the different rates at which these materials accumulate damage. It is concluded that bone fails by a damage related fracture -process, and antler by a damage coalescence process.