aftik april

Unlucky April 27 29:


[Unreadable] [Strangely Graceful]
[Quickdraw] [Built-in Weapons]
[Uncontrollable Bloodthirst] [Unnerving] [Cryptic]
[Manic Rush]
[Abomination]

Wait, this isn't an Aftik, at least, certainly not anymore! I don't think this even counts as a clockwork at this point. Who let this thing in here, anyway? Out! Out! And don't even think about raising that scythe at me!

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Aftik Anatomy ramblingI ran into an interesting problem while making this, namely the specifics of Aftik anatomy. In particular, the shape of their ribs.

Most upright bipedal quadrupeds (humanoids) on Earth have closed rib cages.



However, there's only one extant example -- us!

Almost all other animals, including the extinct Dromaeosauridae (Velociraptors + Deinonychus) family upon which I'm guessing Aftiks are based, have open rib cages.


^{Deinonychus skeleton. Note how the ribs don't meet in the middle.}

But, since that's likely because they don't stand upright, we can't really apply that to Aftik anatomy.

Aftiks' other close Earthling relatives, birds (which conveniently are bipedal) have large, bladelike-sternums.



But, since those are only necessary to serve as an anchor point for birds' powerful wing muscles and Aftiks don't have wings, we can't really use that model either.

In the end I just used a human skeleton, as it was easiest to find in the pose I needed, but it's an interesting question.

There are many, many more of these sorts of questions we could ask, like whether they would retain their large toe-claws when they transitioned to upright movement, or what forced them to stand upright in the first place, but without knowing the conditions and ecology of their home planet, they're unfortunately impossible to answer.