#krmoaten-blog

[iamthekaijuking]

The reveal of primal malzeno as sunbreak’s final boss ended up postponing the malzeno vid, so UHC will be waiting till the last title update to continue working on it.

Instead we got a seltas vid, and while I didn’t have a part in this one since I’m mostly the phylogenetics and anatomy guy, @krmoaten-blog made art for the video so go give her a follow. And also I prompted an interesting conversation between my fellow poopenshitters about the pincers on seltas queen.

Seltas are obviously meant to be rhinoceros beetles since Capcom modeled the male’s anatomy as closely to Dynastinae as they could with 3DS graphics (and rhinoceros beetles are kinda big in Japan so it was only a matter of time till we got a monster of one), and they even gave him an aedeagus! The insect equivalent of a penis. The mantid-like claws aren’t really indicative of evolutionary relation since raptorial appendages are a pretty easy thing to evolve in arthropods.

The queens are pretty odd though and are almost larviform in anatomy. And while she also matches up with beetle anatomy pretty well, her pincers threw me for a loop since beetles don’t have abdomen pincers. At first I thought they were derived from parts of the vagina but after bugging @revretch about it it seems that there isn’t a part of the vagina that can be modified into pincers. So the theory I came up with and shared is that it’s a modified forked aedeagus.

My theory is that seltas queens don’t face too much pressure to retain normal reproductive systems since they’re making 100% of the decisions when it comes to reproduction, and eventually became intersex like moles but with weird aedeaguses. Eventually they evolved to actually put those aedeaguses to use by giving them joints to hold onto mates during reproduction and it just kinda went from there.

So tldr, there are no female seltas. Only males and hulking cannibalistic “queens”.

As far as my thoughts on them go I think they’re amazing and seltas is definitely the best beginner monster. I also love their designs and seltas queen is a giant arthropod done right, with her massive columnar legs that don’t end in points. Whenever I design giant arthropods I actually reference her.

Follow my poopenshitter friends who have tumblrs! @dappercritter, @lizard-legendarium, Krmoaten, @astralarchilocus, @glavenychus

#UHC #unnatural history channel #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter #monster hunter biology #speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #speculative anatomy #krmoaten-blog #revretch #seltas #seltas queen #i honestly feel bad for the males #Youtube

[iamthekaijuking]

The espinas skull for the most recent vid. It was available for early viewing on my patreon, and members get to see a work in progress version.

When making this, something that I never noticed until then was that espinas actually has a bit of a frill, so it was definitely interesting molding paravian skull anatomy to reflect that. I actually had to look at ceratopsians for reference.

(Ref from fellow poopenshitter @krmoaten-blog)

In the past I’ve said I’d never do skulls of the blos wyverns but honestly? Now I think I’ve got the skills and anatomical know how to tackle them.

As for espinas being a shelled wyvern, both it and the raths have many similarities, and I imagine that both are relatively conservative anatomically speaking for their family.

#monster hunter #speculative biology #speculative evolution #monsterhunter #monhun #speculative zoology #skulls #uhc #unnatural history channel #espinas #speculative anatomy #monster hunter biology #Youtube #krmoaten-blog

[iamthekaijuking]

Here’s a monhun skull nobody expected, Gargwa

References were a picture from @krmoaten-blog, a cassowary so I’d know how casques attach, and a mallard duck because most of my UHC friends think gargwa are giant flightless ducks.

I decided to keep all the keratin on the casque because I’m not drawing all the small little strings of bone a casque without a keratin sheath would have.

#sketches #sketch #skulls #monster hunter #monhun #speculative biology #speculative evolution #monsterhunter #speculative zoology #speculative anatomy #monster hunter biology #gargwa #krmoaten-blog

[iamthekaijuking]

Skulls I made while watching LOTR with @krmoaten-blog and her girlfriend

Used this kingrexy art as reference for the warg

#krmoaten blog #Lotr #lord of the rings #skulls #speculative anatomy #speculative evolution #speculative biology #sketch #sketches #watchalong

[iamthekaijuking]

I didn’t have a part in this one since no organ system illustrations were needed and the bones of crabs are on the outside, but it’s still a really fun video because crabs are always a really fun thing to research.

Like UHC said, the duo having half the legs of other decapods is actually advantageous at a larger size. Less legs means less energy expenditure and more focus on the legs you have, and many of the fastest running animals only use 4 or 2 legs so it’s also a speed advantage.

And surprisingly, at least in sunbreak, Hermitaur and Ceanataur have somewhat realistic crab mouths. While their mouths are surrounded by spikes, they do have 2 out of the 3 maxillipeds visible. Albeit just oriented weird.

I do have to disagree with UHC thinking they’re unrelated though. They have too many anatomical features in common and their juveniles are identical as well. But as far as where they and by extension Shen Gaoren go in the decapod family… it’s hard to say. I’m not entirely sure since I’m not very knowledgeable about crustacean phylogenetics. Hermit crabs are an obvious answer but the ‘taurs have abdomens that are very different from real hermit crabs (although it’s entirely possible the person who modeled them didn’t know what hermit crab asses looked like).

(Image curtesy of @krmoaten-blog)

#monster hunter #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter biology #UHC #unnatural History Channel #shogun ceanataur #daimyo hermitaur #speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #speculative ecology #Youtube

[iamthekaijuking]

Love seeing your skull art in UHC's vids, always feels like its a biologists study of a real animals skull lol. don't know why it took me this long to realize I could follow you here.

Thanks! Although it’s almost entirely skulls, skeletons, organs, and phylogenetic trees are on the table for me to do if UHC needs it. It all honestly depends on the video.

It started out with me offering art for the goss vid and some trees for the temnoceran vid, but the art was good enough that I kinda just stuck around and it became a routine.

The skulls also wouldn’t be possible without screenshots that @krmoaten-blog and occasionally @freaky-owl and @dala-siaka have provided for me. So check them out too.

I also make a lot of original stuff as well!

#ask #questions #fungal-fiend

[iamthekaijuking]

The Barioth skull for the newest unnatural history channel video which was available for early viewing on my patreon. Thanks once again to @krmoaten-blog for the references I used.

I used parave anatomy like I do with all flying wyverns, but honestly I don’t think there’s any tetrapod with cranial anatomy that can fix Barioth’s issues. Along with the problem of its tusks looking slapped on (and also being angled outwards which actually makes them incredibly susceptible to breaking) the back of its mouth is especially bad. I followed the proportions of the new world Barioth to show this. Whenever Barioth closes its mouth, the back of its mandibles clips into its cranium. Barioth also doesn’t need such huge brows to shield its eyes from light, as this could be accomplished by malar stripes, which would have also looked pretty cool with its tusks.

UHC and I also talked about how Barioth would hunt massive prey, how the breath attack might work (with his idea of it being a bile and me suggesting it’s specialized fats from its diet), me explaining the dilemma of if Barioth lays eggs or not (probably does), and how Barioth processes carcasses, with us both coming to the conclusion of it using its tusks to cut open carcasses but also possibly using them to cut off strips of fat and muscle too.

Barioth also runs like a vampire bat

#monster hunter #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter biology #unnatural history channel #uhc #barioth #skulls #speculative anatomy #speculative zoology #speculative evolution #speculative biology #Youtube

[iamthekaijuking]

@krmoaten-blog found out that Gaismagorm has retractable gill-like structures on its arms and back, which means that I had to update the Giasmagorm section on the Polypterygian document as well as push back when specialized dermal tissue evolved in elders.

I swear to god I can’t go three days without having to edit this damn thing

#monster hunter #monsterhunter #monhun #monster hunter biology #speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #phylogenetic tree #phylogeny #phylogenetics #cladogram #cladograms #taxonomy

[iamthekaijuking]

Hello to all the new people after seeing the recent video

Got follow @freaky-owl and @krmoaten-blog as well

[iamthekaijuking]

@krmoaten-blog got access to SFM and with it the models of fifth gen monsters

So I thought now’s the time to revisit some of the first monhun skulls I made (Uragaan and Nargacuga), since I know what I’m doing now and have a better understanding of the cranial anatomy of paraves and heterodontosaurs

#sketches #sketch #skulls #uragaan #nargacuga #monster hunter #speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #speculative anatomy #monhun #monster hunter biology #monsterhunter #krmoaten-blog

[iamthekaijuking]

Glow up of an old Anjanath skull I made. References were provided by @krmoaten-blog.

Anjanath is a monster with very interesting implications phylogenetically depending on what theory you ascribe to, but I have interpreted it as a tyrannosaur. Despite looking like a normal feathered dinosaur, close inspection reveals its entire anatomy is very bizarre.

Its tusks I think are actually part of the tooth row on its dentaries, and that the tooth row is zigzagged around the front of the jaw to achieve this. It’s dentaries also seem to be fused together, which is unusual for a reptile.

Anjanath’s quest to have the best sniffer ever has granted it a massive retractable nasal system that folds up in its skull, but at the cost of an ossified nasal bone. I do think the nasal is still there, just maybe mostly made of cartilage, but it’s weird for a tyrannosaur to forgo the nasal bone since I’m pretty sure it’s very important in making sure that the skull doesn’t explode due to the tremendous bite power tyrannosaurs have. Anjanath might have a proportionally weaker bite than tyrannosaurus, and the tusks and fused dentaries might mean that instead of overwhelming might, Anjanath instead is built for swift and powerful snaps with most of the force coming from the mandibles.

It also has alligator ears for some reason.

My thoughts on Anjanath? Tied with a few other monsters for my favorite.

#speculative anatomy #speculative zoology #speculative evolution #speculative biology #skulls #sketch #sketches #anjanath #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter #monster hunter biology #krmoaten blog

[iamthekaijuking]

Tigrex skull made using reference provided by @krmoaten-blog.

The reference was the new world species but I gave it the heterodont dentition of the old world species. I think whenever I do flying wyvern skulls now I’m going to use this as reference since it seems I didn’t put as many bones on past flying wyvern skulls I’ve done (although I can just handwave and say that the bones fused).

If you’ve seen my flying wyvern tree then you know I think of flying wyverns as a unique paravian family and a sister group to most bird wyverns. My proposed flying wyvern ancestor was either a burrowing omnipedal dromeosaur-like animal, or an omnipedal dromeosaur-like creature with styliforms that was sort of all terrain and could burrow and climb. The burrowing allowed it to survive the KT extinction and from there it diversified.

Tigrex itself, while not bearing a strong resemblance to this ancestral wyvern, can be thought of as a megafaunal reflection of its life style. An adaptive all terrain creature.

As for my thoughts on tigrex, I like it a lot. Tied with the magnamalo, glavenus, Deviljho, and Anjanath genre for my favorite monsters. Although I’d like it a lot more if it wasn’t shrink wrapped and its fight wasn’t annoying at times (especially in iceborne where you block a charge and it ends up on top of you and when it turns around to charge again it ends up hitting you despite your shield being up).

#krmoaten blog #speculative anatomy #speculative zoology #speculative evolution #speculative biology #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter #monster hunter biology #tigrex #skulls #sketch #sketches

[iamthekaijuking]

Odogaron skull made using gorgonopsids and material from @krmoaten-blog as reference

It is surprisingly shrew-like

#sketches #sketch #krmoaten blog #monster hunter #speculative biology #speculative evolution #monsterhunter #monhun #speculative anatomy #speculative zoology #skulls #monster hunter biology #odogaron

[iamthekaijuking]

Legiana skull made using reference material from the usual suspect when it comes to monsters appearing in 5th gen (@krmoaten-blog).

I wasn’t sure if the horns were cartilage or bone so I just did bone to play it safe.

To make myself get it done faster I tortured myself by listening to 100 Gecs.

#skulls #legiana #sketches #sketch #speculative anatomy #monster hunter #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter biology #speculative biology #speculative evolution #speculative zoology #krmoaten blog

[iamthekaijuking]

A glow up of an old skull rendition of Zinogre (specifically new world species) using anteosaurus as reference and shots provided by @krmoaten-blog.

While I made it using dinocephalian anatomy, I actually don’t know how the quadrate attaches to the mandibles, so feel free to correct me.

As you can tell I think of Zinogre as a dinocephalian, but specifically one with arboreal ancestry. The last two digits on the arms and legs are held hyperextended off the ground like dromeosaur claws, and while in Zinogre they’re used mostly for predation and combat, in its ancestors it might have been used like those of a lot of early birds; a way to grip trees while running up them. They could have even been opposable.

Zinogre doesn’t produce its own electricity but if you take into account my biomineralization theory for monhun then Zinogre likely has conductive metals lining an organ system that functions like electrical wiring. Directing electricity produced by its symbiotic fulgurbugs to its extremities without harming other organs.

As for my thoughts on Zinogre itself, I like it a lot. It’s a very fun and interesting monster that I think deserves its love. Oddly it’s had a lot of changes to its fight over the generations. 3rd gen Zinogre was very gunlance friendly but 4th gen had some moves that punished you for blocking. Worldborne is straight up not possible to gunlance, but if I use a greatsword with a healing augment then it becomes one of my favorite fights. On the UHC server Zinogre is very divisive. You either enjoy it or loathe its existence with completely unfounded vitriol from what I’ve seen.

#sketch #sketches #zinogre #speculative anatomy #speculative zoology #speculative evolution #speculative biology #monhun #monsterhunter #monster hunter #monster hunter biology #skulls #krmoaten blog

[iamthekaijuking]

A Chameleos skull made in accordance with my Actinistian elder theory. @freaky-owl and @krmoaten-blog actually didn’t supply the reference for this one, but go follow them anyway.

Since I’m making elder skulls using coelacanth anatomy, that means that the braincase is technically the part of the skull behind the part containing the orbits. Chameleos’ neck doesn’t directly connect behind the head, and gives this place a lot of space. So Chameleos is rather big brained. (Although technically I think that the brain has shifted further forward in the skulls of Actinistian monsters to have more room but I don’t know the limitations of coelacanth skulls to say this for certain).

I considered adding a hyoid bone but didn’t for 2 reasons. One is that animals with long flexible tongues like pangolins and giant anteaters don’t actually anchor their tongues to their hyoid bones. The second reason is that I don’t know if the bone in coelacanth skulls I repurposed into ear bones are derived from the second gill arch, so I played it safe.

#chameleos #sketches #sketch #monster hunter #speculative biology #speculative evolution #monsterhunter #monhun #monster hunter biology #speculative anatomy #speculative zoology #skulls