#skeleton biology

[charcoaldustonmyfingers]

Leo skeletal anatomy! Click for better quality :)

The way most turtles actually fit into their shells is because their arms and legs are shaped to fit into the loose skin around the openings for their limbs, but on account of their human proportions, I just suspend my disbelief as to how mutant turtles could fit in their shells without the odd configuration to their organs that real turtles have. Real turtles have flat lungs that sit widely along their carapace, which is weird but cool. Turtles shed their scutes (the large flat scales on their shells and plastron) about once a year or if the scutes are damaged. The scutes have barely any skin between them and the bone, which is why turtle skeletons usually have the scutes on still, though they can pop off. The rest of the skin sheds regularly though, instead of in large patches.

For the brothers’, their respiration is much more human than turtle. Therefore, their lungs need to expand and contract with their diaphragm rather than just with their movement, so therefore they must have some flexibility to their chest. Some turtles, like box turtles, already have hinged plastrons, and softshell shells are mostly cartilage, so it’s not too far off to assume that there’s a bit of cartilage just to the upper plastral bones of the hard shelled brothers to give their humanoid lungs room to breathe.

Poor Leo. After the movie, one could assume he’s got a couple broken bones. It kind of made me morbidly curious as to how to describe injuries on a character whose skeletal structure is quite different from a human’s for my own writing!

Feel free to use as reference or disregard, these are just my own little speculations :)

[General][Raph][Donnie][Mikey][Splinter]

[vcreatures]

The Sailor Mermaid gets it’s name for not only it’s impressive head sail but also it unique mode of transportation. Arguably one of the fastest of the Sirena family, the Sailor Maid or sometimes referred to as the Sail-Finned Maid will use the large fin much like a sailboat to aid in traveling vast distances in search of food. Their streamline bodies paired with this large sail make for a formidable predator. Mating pairs, using their head sails as barriers will often corral schools of fast moving prey between in order to feed.  

Slide two: An example of the dimorphism found in the skulls of the Sirenia order.

[yellydany]

VAMPIRE KILLER FROG 🐸 🩸 (Nosferas Venari) Also known as Eztlicueyatl (Blood frog) or Tzinacamiztli (Bat death)

"A voracious amphibian-like species that adapted to hunt vampires. Its origins are vague and shrouded in mystery but an hypothesis suggests it could have been the result of selective breeding or nature’s “way” of dealing with the ecological imbalance vampires caused through centuries. Whichever the reason, one thing is clear: these hunters evolved in such fashion they became the night creatures’ bane.

Every bodily function feels almost engineered in eerie accuracy to strike at their very weaknesses- such as the tip of the tail (bone) they sharpen to resemble a stake, the muscle reflexes and athletic composition to catch up with their supernatural agility and a blackened coat which absorbs the bouncing light of nocturnal eyes paired with drastically lowering their body temperature (essentially becoming ‘invisible’ in the dark). Although they may prefer a stealthy approach they show no fear if they must engage in direct confrontation. There’s no sexual dimorphism albeit females are more common in nature compared to the rare male sights and not much is known about the behavior with others of their kind as they are solitary. But such is their intelligence that it would be safe to assume they study- and learn from both their prey’s movement and environments given the observations on this beast.

Worse yet- for vampires- they have more cunning ways of hunting for a meal.

The Nosferas frog is able to produce a unique secretion mix of blood, mucus and gastric fluids which is all over their bodies- from the inside and out. More interestingly they have a way to regulate its acidic components to either use as a melting gag weapon, dissolving and trapping pathogens or simply increasing its PH. Essentially, the body is extremely moldable thanks to this odd slimy substance that makes it almost feel like liquid and comes in handy in various situations such as protecting their brood eggs by swallowing them. It is also the most crucial function in the capturing of their vampiric prey as the scent of this bloody secretion lures them and other carnivores in. Once they come in sight they eject their multiple stomachs through gastric eversion to latch onto the victim and begin the digestion early. The vampire skulls are then proudly kept and displayed given the very transparent look of the lower side of the body.

Despite it being a terrifying organism by all means, they have shown vague signs of affection toward humans- some of whom have tamed and kept them as exotic guardian pets against the supernatural plague. In most areas of the land however they underwent a ban given their dangerous and unsettling nature."

[bluescreeningart]

my collection of handmade felt patches so far :)

[curiosityistheleastofmyproblems]

A skeleton gentleman at a ball asks a skeleton lady to dance; representing the effect of arsenical dyes and pigments in clothing and accessories.

Wood engraving, 1862.

Wellcome Collection

[benjimarii]

Workin' on something fun! Got lots of Speculative Biology headcanons for this guy cooking up! And perhaps a video soon to come >:)

[technicalgrimoire]

We put SO MUCH work into the digital edition of Bones Deep. Glad to see that work paid off!

You can grab a copy for yourself here: https://www.technicalgrimoire.com/bones-deep

[sealhaus]

BAKÉ KUJIRA PLUSHIE!!!!!!🐋🐋🐋🐋

I let my whale skeleton fixation take over and turn a thrift store whale plushie into my favorite yokai

His name is Mortimer of Dan-no-ura

[cypherdecypher]

Animal of the Day!

Eurasian Aurochs (Bos primigenius)

(Photo from Britannica)

Extinction Date- 1627

Habitat- Europe; Northern Africa; Central Asia

Size (Weight/Length)- 1,000 kg; 1.8 m tall

Diet- Grasses; Nuts; Leaves

Cool Facts- The Eurasian aurochs was a majestic species of megafauna cattle that lived throughout the Pleistocene. Aurochs were believed to live in small herds and have a similar hierarchy to their current descendents of domesticated cattle. Due to their massive size, Eurasian aurochs had little to fear outside of prides of lions or large tigers. Their cultural significance travels throughout the Neolithic peoples of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Aurochs were favored creatures for cave paintings and fights in the Roman Colosseum. Domestication of aurochs began in the Fertile Crescent when humans began civilization. Unfortunately, Eurasian aurochs were driven to extinction by over-hunting and a quickly transforming landscape that resulted in the death of many megafauna species. Today, their closest relative is the rare, Spanish Pajuna cattle.

Rating- 12/10 (The loss of prehistoric landscapes resulted in the loss of megafauna worldwide.)

[iamthekaijuking]

What do you think of the official Legendary godzilla skeletal anatomy?

Also based on the skull anatomy Legendary seems to be some sort of Archosauromorph but im not sure since i cant find any close up photos of the skull but this is the best i can analyze

Oh dang how come I never heard about this till now?!

The skeleton seems really chimeric, with the skull being very diapsid-like, but the hips and lack of gastralia are very mammalian or synapsid-like. A view of the top of the skull might be the deal breaker, since whether or not it has 2 or 4 temporal fenestra would determine if it’s a diapsid or synapsid.

But legendary Godzilla also has gills (although whether or not they’re homologous to fish gills is up for debate), and considering such a large species would have a long lifespan and thus evolve slower and that Godzilla’s species evolved in the Permian, there’s also the possibility that it’s descended from something much more ancient and just convergently evolved these skeletal features. Amniote of some kind is a potential answer, but an amphibian shouldn’t be ruled out.

[elk-scribe]

Rain world moments.

Enjoy some speculative anatomy of the rain deer

+ some bonus sketches here

[charcoaldustonmyfingers]

Donnie skeletal anatomy! Click for better quality

Alright so softshell turtles right. They funky. It’s a lot more obvious that their shells are part of their ribs, as you can actually see the faint outline of their fused vertebrae and ribs on their shells. The reason their shells are so soft is because the edges and much of the lower half of their shell is actually all just cartilage and skin. Their plastron are weird, because the bone plates are largely separate and pointy, held together by harder cartilage the same way human ribs are attached around the sternum.

Donnie was weird to figure out on account of the cartilage lower half of his softshell, but I tried to compromise with his lower back vertebrae being unfused to still allow for the higher mobility required for his waist. Another fun fact about softshell is that they don’t actually have scutes or scales, but because of the look of his plastron and consistency with his brothers in the show, I’m just going to pretend that Draxum mixed in some DNA to let him grow scales for extra protection even if he has less coverage than his brothers. He can “breathe” water by absorbing oxygen through the skin of his throat, not actually by inhaling it. While most turtles can do this to a point, soft shells can stay quite active while doing so.

Personally I like to think of Donnie’s softshell as both a weakness and a strength depending on the situation! While more vulnerable, his skin can heal faster than scutes, and if he sustains blunt damage to his shell he can more easily disperse the force of it because of the give to his cartilage, rather than have the force crack his shell and cause a much more traumatic injury. Kind of like how seatbelts have some give to them to ease into a stop instead of giving someone whiplash.

Just some personal head canons! Feel free to disagree or expand upon :)

[General][Raph][Leo][Mikey][Splinter]

[humanoidhistory]

Exposed, 1773. (NYPL)

[alithographica]

so many people have brilliant things to say about little details in shows, the meaning behind an artistic decision, the symbolism of flowers, hard-to-translate language concepts, things that really add to your understanding of a work

I can't do any of that

all I can offer you is that this skeleton doesn't have enough ribs

but they did get the handedness of their DNA correct (sooo much art has it twisting the wrong direction)

this means nothing, enjoy ❤️

[moryonenn]

Ngaru [ŋaɹu]

Ngaru originate on the continent Ozenia. They lost the gliding feathers and gripping toes of their ancestors when the forests changed to desert. Pre-modern ngaru were omnivorous scavengers, using there size and sharp incisors to scare predators off of their kills, but capable of surviving on a herbivorous diet when necessary. Modern ngaru are often hunter-gatherers, with the invention of spears allowing them to hunt instead of scavenge. The only ngaru culture with widespread agriculture is the Regnalantan culture living in the fertile river mouth and valley of the river Regna, but since they are also the only culture to partake in widespread trade, they are the face of ngaru for the rest of the world.

Because their natural gait is jumping, ngaru settlements are designed so they rarely have to slow down. Dwellings are wide, rather than tall, and when building vertically, it's nearly always in single-story apartments, with upper levels often being accessed by a ramp that can be several streets away.

[curiosityistheleastofmyproblems]

Illustration of a skull

Wellcome collection