Drawing a beast

[amphipod]

I figured that this may be a good place for this thread, if it's not, I'm still very new here so forgive me.

To the point, I am basically, as a little fun project, designing my own beast, using features from various creatures, including plenty of extinct animals. Either way I'd like some constructive criticism on this so I can improve it, and make it the best that I can. It's a combination of features of a pterosaur family (let's see who can guess the right family), the bear, several mosasaurs, Tyrannosaurus, beaver and I "proof checked" it with a few other skulls. I'm sure I made mistakes.

Edited October 1, 2015 by amphipod

[snolly50]

That is a fun and interesting project. The fantasy production of chimera is as old as humankind. It can be an excellent exercise in imagination, but also can be used to display scientific knowledge. Given your example, it is unlikely that it would be adaptive for an animal to display skeletal traits of both a pterosaur and a mosasaur. Of course they are both of reptile linage, but the pterosaur's lightweight skeleton is of no advantage to the mosasaur. Therefore any similarity would be only coincidental.

What I'm trying to get at; it may be more fun to imagine a creature whose features make evolutionary sense. That is; what is the animal's story? How does it live and prosper? What does it do for a living? Who are its friends and enemies? What's for lunch?

Great drawing. Have fun, it's an intriguing project.

[amphipod]

That is a fun and interesting project. The fantasy production of chimera is as old as humankind. It can be an excellent exercise in imagination, but also can be used to display scientific knowledge. Given your example, it is unlikely that it would be adaptive for an animal to display skeletal traits of both a pterosaur and a mosasaur. Of course they are both of reptile linage, but the pterosaur's lightweight skeleton is of no advantage to the mosasaur. Therefore any similarity would be only coincidental.

What I'm trying to get at; it may be more fun to imagine a creature whose features make evolutionary sense. That is; what is the animal's story? How does it live and prosper? What does it do for a living? Who are its friends and enemies? What's for lunch?

Great drawing. Have fun, it's an intriguing project.

thanks.

Good point, I should explain, I have thought of the animals life. Basically it's a top of the food chain, his worst enemies are his competitors, like tyrannosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, and whatever else has a similar ecological placement. Lunch is large dinosaurs, it kills by a bone breaking bite, and the powerful arms ( not designed yet). Also want to make it have some flying ability, basically this thing is a pterosaur on steroids.

Here are what features I picked from what animals, pterosaur- the general skull outline and the crest, mosasaur- the snout and teeth, beaver- back of the jaw, bear- most of the sagittal crest, tyrannosaurus-the orbit and surrounding area, and some of the bottom jaw.

[ZiggieCie]

Nice drawing, you have a natural talent.

[sseth]

Fun drawing.

[amphipod]

Nice drawing, you have a natural talent.

thank you

[amphipod]

Is it just me or does the bottom jaw need more improvement?

[amphipod]

Slightly revised, I think I will start to work on the neck pretty soon

[amphipod]

I'm thinking about polydactyl hands, do biomechanics have anything to say against it?

[LordTrilobite]

Not really. Technically you can create a creature with any number of limbs or fingers/toes. We have five digits because our ancestors had five digits. Many other animals have a reduced number of digits because frankly, they didn't need the extra ones. Way back in the time of our fish ancestors there were Amphibians that had more than 5 digits on their limbs. Some suggest that five digits may have been just a nice number that's not to much and not too little.

When designing a creature. The most important thing to think about is function. If you say you want to give the creature more than five digits. Why does it have that many? What does it use it's hands/paws/feet for? Are they for grasping, slashing, swimming, poking, etc?

The skull you made looks nice btw.

[amphipod]

True, I have acanthostega and ichyostega in mind with polydactyl hands, I wonder what benefits were given for them to be created with extra fingers, maybe to give a broader paddle. The sort of polydactyl form I'm thinking of is a cross between bat and pterosaur hand, giving a potential total of 7 fingers , or I could get another idea and take things to another level. Either way the beast will be able to grab and partially subdue victims with the hands and arms, and finish them with a bone crushing bite.

Thanks also

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