Systema oddworld natura
 

Hello i have made this topic to discussion of the classification of oddworld animals. I have called it Systema oddworld natura because there was a swedish botanist that maked a classification of not only plants but all living and he named his classification for: "Systema natura".
To start with i can say that glukkons, mudukons, sligs, gabbits, maybe scrabs, maybe fuzzles, and maybe paramites are vertebratas (animals with a vertebral column). Gabbits are amphibius creatures (vertebratas that both living in water and on land)
I live in Denmark so maybe i have bad spelling and gramatica.

What's with the (latin?)
I don't think Fuzzles have bones. I think they're just a big lump of muscle. They're invertabrates.

I don't think fuzzles are vertebrates or invertebrates, they seem compeletly different. I'd guess the following were vertebrates:
Gabbits,(Amphibious) Mudokons, Elums, Interns, Glukkons, Vykkers, Sligs, Steef, Outlaws, Wolvarks, Slogs, Slegs, Clakkerz, Chroniclers, Meeps, Stunkz, Chip-punks, Searexes (Aquatic)
And the invertebrates are:
Paramites, Slurgs, Fleeches, the variuous bugs and beetles that Stranger uses, Meetles, Mugs
And fuzzles fall into a category of their own. Scrabs and Meeches could be either, having seen pictures of them, although I'd imagine they'd both be vertebrates. No telling what the more obscure creatures that we've never properly seen are (eg. Guardians)

to me Scrabs and Paramites are vertebrates you know

Yes i also think that fuzzles have no vertebral collumn but i think they have bones that protect their interior and they look like mamalia because of their hair.
The mamalian order that i think they belongs to is: "carnivora" (an order where cats, dogs, bears, pandas, wolfs, lynx, and lots of other anmals with sharp teth belongs to)
So maybe fuzzles are a mamalia without vertebral collumn.
Many have alredy speaked of the octigi family with includes octigi, glukkons and glokctigis in systema natura many family names end with dae so i think that i will call the octigi family for: "octidae"

Well, Fuzzles have teeth, so they probably have some kind of jaw bones or cartilage.

I have not played MO, but Vertebraes refer to creatures with a bony spine and I doubt a Fuzzle would have one from what I've seen in pictures and heard on these forums. There are many invertebrae that have bones.


This looks like good fun though. I will do some research and help put together this list. Most of the biology i did in school was smoking pot but I know some basic stuff.

Anyway with the first sector of classification I've put together these theories. (The creatures from AO AND AE that is.)

Vertebrae: Elum, Glukkon, Mudokon, Slig, Slog

Invertebrae: Fleech, Paramite, Slurg

Unsure: Scrab. I was undecided but I'm leaning haveily towards vertebrae after looking closely at the meat chart and the build up of the scrab. (Also I saw that guys drawings of a scrabs bones in the fan corner and thought it would be tight to say it was wrong after he did such amazing work :P).

You know after we do this I think it'd be great if we get together and create an Oddworld Encyclopedia, and publish it for users on this forum.

There's already one of those. It's largely an account of canon, though, rather than fan theories.

I'm not sure why the idea of Paramites being invertebrates is so popular. True Abe's Oddysee describes them as crustaceans, but that's clearly to describe their appearance more than their phylogeny. In my mind, the well-built nature of Scrabs' and Paramites' bodies strongly suggests a skeletal structure, but Paramites more so than Scrabs, especially because of those facial fingers.

Regarding Fuzzles' skeletal system, it wouldn't be right to assume that because they don't look to have one now that they never did. Humans don't have externally-visible tails, but our coccyx is a remnant of our evolutionary past. In the same way, Fuzzles' vertebrates may have shrunk down to a minute size.

The reason I think Paramites are invertebrates is becuase a) Max's quote from AO, and also if you look at them the way their bodes are shaped looks likethey can't really have a spinal column, and I'd imagine they have either an exoskeleton that is very hard to notice (and thus blends with the skin) or they have cartilage/gristle where you'd expect the spinal column to be, rather than bone.

SPAM!!! *pulls out machette and leaps at Abe 01, screaming*

I think scrabs and paramites are vertebrates, if they were invertebrate (exoskeleton) you'd be able to see it. I also imagined Paramites to have a small lair of fine, greyish hair, kinda like a cow, for some reason. Scrabs, I always thought to have strong, muscular skin, but no exoskeleton. Shame Alf is out of business.

When we get Spore, we can test these things, see if a creature like that is physically possible, and if it moves the same / similar to the actual oddworld versions. Damn the distance of Christmas! :(

spore?whats that,anywase i think that scrab and paramites are vertabrates is this intire topic about vertibrates and invertibrates

yeh i agree actually with paramites now. I had another look at them and realised they arn't the same shape as spiders who are invertebrae. Also their little fingers on the end of them would have to be built up of bone and that bone would have to be connected to the spinal chord some how

Paramites are vertebrates. They're referred to as crustaceans, and the name suggests they are some type of insect-like animal, but just from looking at their frontal arms you can see their bicep and deltoid muscles are similar to that of a humans, and would naturally be built around the same kind of bone. Also, it's evident Paramites have shoulder blades, and as stated, those boney fingers can't be boney without boney bones. In Oddworld, Mudokons are the most humanoid species, so it's safe to sermise Paramites could have some relation to them through descent with modification, thus the homologous structures.

Scrabs too have the same type of evidence, though they do not look remotely human from a distance, it's obvious their leg muscles and torso build is very humanoid as well.

Here are mine classification: first in phylums: Chordata (animals with a spinal cord): elums, mudokons, gabbits, scrabs, glukkons, steff, meep, fuzzles, searexes, slogs, slegs, sligs, boombats, stunks, kintos, birds, vykkers, interns, chippunks, clakkerz, meeches, and bats.
Arthropoda (spiders, insects, millepide, centipide, scorpions, harvestmen, mites, and crustaceans are Arthropodas): bolamites, bees, fireflies, paramites, thudslugs, stingbees, and zappflies. Mollusc (snails, slugs, octopuses, and clamps are mollusc): fleeches (or maybe it is one of the worm-phylums) and slurgs. When i first saw the paramites i thinked of them like spiders and maybe there are some sort of arachnids (arthropodas with eight legs and a body in two parts) like spiders, mites, scorpions, and harvestmen because if you count thier forelegs: 2 and thier backlegs: 2 and there tentacles: 4 the result will be: 8 so maybe four of thier legs have takened place around their mouth. Paramites don´t need a spinal cord because they are not standing upright and the gravity are distributed all over their bodies but scrabs and meetles cannot be without a spinal cord because they are standing uprigth and the gravity is distributed over a small place.
I have also maked a classification for fuzzles on mudos (fuzzlius mudos): domain: eucariota (living organisms with a or many cell nucleus), kingdom: regnum animale (the animal kingdom) phylum: chordata, underphylum: vertebrata, class: mammalia, underclass: placenta (mammalias with a placenta and without a pouch), order: carnivora, family: cephalodae (i have maked this family for all those animals in the order carnivora that only have a head), generus: fuzzlius, species mudos. Bullet Magnet have opened a thread in the fancorner named "The Prehistory of Oddworld" for all those fan theories on oddworld including the animals but i will make this topic a reasearc topic on the animals and then we could post the results on "The Prehistory of oddworld".

Yes! please post there! I'm so very lonely :p

I actually wrote up a list of Oddworld latin names (technically "Kode' names) that I will post when I find them. Watch this space...

I called the fuzzle if I remember correctly "Deceptus terrapirahnus" meaning "deceptive land-pirahna". I expect a heated scientific debate following this heinous dissagreement. ;)

Well, I bet Fuzzles do have some type of skeleton, i f they have teeth.
I mean, they could have a very tiny skeletal system, inluding ribs and a spine, and a skull.
If Lorne could show us an x-ray version of a Fuzzle, some of us may be right, and I may be wrong. :p
As for the rest of this classification stuff; how do you guys do it? I don't understand most of this, especially the Latin.
I know vertebraes are creatures with spines i.e- Mudokons, Glukkons, Vykkers
And amphibians are water creatures i.e- Gabbits, Mollusc...dunno much water creatures...
But the rest...it's espaniol to me.

I believe Fuzzles have a skeleton, but with muscle inside of it allowing it to jump. Outside of the skeleton it is kind of substance that gives them that boing. THat's my theory anyway.

I just thinking- can we really classify Oddworld creatures into the sam taxa (classification groups) as Earth creatures? They evolved separately on Oddworld and ergo are entirely unrelated.

Interestingly, many of the insects, epecially the larger ones, appear to be vertebrates. The meetle cirtainly appears to have an endoskeleton, and on the intro movie of MO you see the X-ray of a beetle, and it has bones. I seemed to be a tiny meetle. I found my Odd-zoology page, I'll post it shortly.

Insect vertebrates? That's a different theory. Could be correct though, after all, there is the beetle X-Ray liek you said, and creatures would evolve differently on Oddworld, again like you said. But then what about Mugs? Are they vertebrates or invertebrates? I'd guess the first, as they seem related to Meetles in appearance, and if Meetles are vertebrates, then Mugs could be.

Mugs are Meetles. Just a specific kind of Meetle.

OK, here are all the classifications I have come up with of official creatures and some I made up. On the left are various common names, on the right are the scientific names, their pronunciaton and translation. They are just the genus, species and sub-species here.

Good work Bullet Magnet. But i don´t think that scrabs are arachnids and your latin name of mudokons: "Mudosian Lornei Chump" indicates that you mean there are more species of the genus Mudosian than Lornei and you also say that there are other subspecies of Mudosian Lornei than Chump and sloggies are slog puppies not a different subspecies and interns have not always worked for the vykkers and when i give the oddworld species thier latin names i do not use names from real persons like Lornei and Farzadi.
I also will be glad if you posted some pictures of your own species here on oddworld forums but don´t forget that the desert paramite should be different for a normal paramite maybe you shold make thier mouth fingers thinner or something like that. Sorry i needed to criticate it so much.
But i still call fuzzles "fuzzlius mudos".

I agree. Arachnids are characterized by four pairs of legs and two body segments.

I remember a similar topic to this, and I recall I soon posted a similar conclusion as Bullet Magnet came up with - you can't classify them in the same groups as actual animals. Though you could probably group them up, sometimes in animal-like clasifications. Let me see...

Mammal/Reptile like (Mainly speaking, vertebrates. Some might not have a backbone, as such, but still have endoskeletons from which to anchor muscles. The difference between mammals and reptiles on oddworld seems to be much more ambiguous than here. As a matter of fact, things that might be described as reptiles might just be hairless mammals. Who knows?)
Critters
Fuzzle
Chippunk
Ratz
Bats
Meep
Skunks
Boombats
Sleg
Slog
Large and Hairy
Steef
Outlaw
Wolvarks
Elum
Large and Hairless
Sligs(Other?)
Vykkers
Interns
Grubbs(Amphibian?)
Scrab
Paramite
Mudokon (Possibly more bird like. Possibly could even be mentioned in large, hairy mammals/reptiles, but they only have a small ammount of hair, I think they fit better in here.)

Bird like (Feathers, anyone?)
Mudokons (Large, hairless mammals?)
Birds(Obviously)
Clackerz

Insect like (An exoskeleton, possibly in addition to an endoskeleton. Being the reason a paramite isn't one.)
Bees
Bolamite
Thudslug
Stingbees
Zappflies
Mugs/Meetles
Fireflies
?Fleeches(Other?)

Amphibian like (Can breathe in air and water)
Gabbits
Grubbs(Possible a large, hairless mammal. But in this case, it may be pointed out that they can swim.)

Mollusc like (The only reason I have to show that these three are related I can't think where I picked up. If someone knows, I would apprectate confirmation. It is interesting to note that none of these have any shells. Endoskeletons or no skeletons. How messy.)
Glukkon
Gloktogi
Oktigi (Thanks, Xavier)
Slurgs (Kudos to Primus inter pares for suggesting this. Though it could also be in Other.)

Fish like (Breathe water. Endoskeletons)
Searex

Other (They just don't fit anywhere else, or at least not very well)
Fleeches(Insect?)
Slurgs(Mollusc?)
Sligs(Large, Hairless Mammal?)

Secto is an Oktigi
you can trust this source ;)
http://www.oddworldlibrary.net/toe/world/sekto.php

Let me clarify things with an irate rant.

All those common names where my attempts at providing more depth into Oddworld. Almost all Earth species have a variety of names. Many of them are from the old names OWI gave them during production, like "Arachnid Junior" for paramites and "Oldger" for glukkons. Of course they are not arachnids. Arachnids evelved on earth and earth alone. Some of the common names were references that I actually heard in the games, eg for the fuzzles: "Little cuties" as Munch put it, and "MMM-MMMM!" as one Intern described them.

With the sloggies, I was also trying to add backstrory. I decided that there are two kinds: baby slogs, and a dwarfed sub species indistinguishable from then, that may raplec baby slogs in the litter, cuckoo-like.

With the mudokons I was just twisting the rules slightly. Sometimes species names are two words, but this is usually to distinguish sub-species. I was suggesting their may be other mudokon breeds, perhaps extinct, like Homo Neanderthalis. For instance, the "moon Mudokons" in some fan-fics.

And I know interns have not always worked for Vykkerz. IBut we, as taxonomists, have only seen them this way, and can only dscribe species as they are on their discovery.

And the names- many species are named after the person who discovered them. It was my homage to Lorne Lanning and Farzad.

I also think that there are very few actually invertabrates on Oddworld. the ones I can accept are slurgs and some of the insectoid ammo and generic bugs that float around. The paramite torso is almost the same as the scrab torso, for creating the Shrykull "hybrid". And often things that are evovled are lost. So fuzzles may no longer have any vertebrae, but if their ancestors did then they are still vertabrates, unless you choose to create a third spine-based phylum.

Vertebrates are a sub-phylum in the chordata phylum. there are chordates (animals with a stiffening spinal rod) who are not vertebrates, eg the fish like descendants of a "missing link" between worm-like creatures and fish. the other phylums are all invertebrates: Arthropods (insects, crustaceans and all them) molluscs, and all the many different worm phylums.

Cor. I have to say, when I read your work, I was somewhat dissatisfied with some of the ideas you pointed out, despite the overall good work. That clarification was very well done. Why you call yourself Bullet Magnet, I don't know.

What? I don't think I understand what you just said.

And the name "Bullet Magnet" is based on my experiences playing multiplayer Unreal Tournament.

Interesting history on your name.
Good work too about the species classfication, your explanations make it much clearer. I take it you have some qualification(s) in biology/animal biology then?

None whatsoever. Though I am good at Biology, averaging an A in A-level (tough it all comes down to my next exams in June). I hope to take Marine Biology at University, but that's not important. Ahem.

I like to read alot, and almost all of my latin and taxonomy skills come from dinosaur names. For intance, Echino means "spiny" and dactyl meeans "hand". Though as my names where in "Kode", Oddworld's equivalent of latin, I put in words from every where I could. Some were latin: canis, compsognathus, maritimus (actually the species name for Polar Bears). Simpatcus comes from the Spanish "simpatico" meaning friendly, and robo is polish for slave, where we get "robot" from. Many of them were completely made up.

Incidently, my moto is in latin. Ita erat quando hic adveni, which means "It was like that when I got here!" It's got me out of a few sticky situations, I can tell you. But I won't.

For more on taxonomy and evolutionary theory, see my post in the thread "there should be meeches in the games". :D

Once again I must face up to the truth: I am a nerd.

PS: Are mudokons really bird like? The only bird like quality they have are the feathers, but birds aren't the only animals to have had them. The theropod dinosaurs did. All the big names: Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, Gallimimus, Compsognathus, all feathered. I draw your attention to the recently discovered Microraptor, a small feathered dinosaur eqiped with four wings, long flight feathers clearly preserved in the fossil, emerging from all four limbs. Now, Oddworld is pretty wierd, I don't see why mudokons could have independantly evolved feathers as displays, especially if birds could have evolved indepentantly of Earth birds, and Clakkers to have opposable feathers on their wings. After all, the long feathers on the arms of dinosaurs that would become wings first evolved as mating displays, according to current theory, and then became a way of steering when running, chasing prey.