Dem Bones - A look at the physiology of Oddworld

[Dipstikk]

All right, so ever since Oddworld started creating skeletons for their cast of creature features, I've had a few questions that have racked my own thick skull.

1. Mudokons have no teeth in their jaws, but in Munch's Oddysee we can plainly see Abe and Alf's pearly whites in the FMVs. My theory: Perhaps their teeth are made of cartilage or some solid material that would otherwise rot away and not be found in the fossil record of Necrum.

2. Glukkons seem to have no cranial bones, which is strange, and for the life of me I can't understand how they would support their brain without a skull. They seem to be more octopuslike than their body suggests, which is rigid and structured. My theory: Perhapse their skull is much smaller and there is a layer of fat / fluid / flesh that causes the back of the head to wobble.

3. Scrabs have a melon - an area in front of the head like that of a Bottlenose Dolphin - that is assumed to pick up echolocative vibrations in place of eyes. Is this a solid area or does it have a socket? My theory: The melon area is solid, but at a slope as a dolphin's skull is. There would be a fleshy area in front of the slope that would make up the melon and act as a target for the vibrations.

Time to put on your creepy-looking thinking caps with the light bulbs on either side and come up with some questions about the physiology of the inhabitants of Oddworld. Anything at all, ask away. But if you don't have a question, present a theory to another member's question.

Ask and think away.

[Abe16]

It's weird that in MO they have teeth and in AO and AE they don't.That's my only question.

[Kimon]

It's weird that in MO they have teeth and in AO and AE they don't.That's my only question.

Hehe. That's not a question.

*Thinking Cap ON!!!*

I've always wondered how the birds (which can be seen in SW) could fly. I mean, they have similarities to a toucan or other such bird in the way that their beaks are large in proportion to their body, but the Oddworld Birds, have beaks that are much bigger than their body. Seeing as how the beak is usually made of a harder, more solid material than the birds bones (which are hollow), I always thought it difficult to envision them flying without doing frontflips the entire time.

My theory: The birds tail feathers are considerably heavier than the other feathers, which (while making flight more difficult in terms of strength and endurance) would make for a more balanced flight.

That's mine.

[Scrab Watcher]

Ah...such intelligent discussion. Such beautifully intelligent discussion.*wipes eye* On to business! *ajusts tasseled thinking cap and strides onto stage*

(Some of this is quite far fetched and I have the strangest feeling that part of this has been already said somewhere...meh)

Greetings friends. Tonight our talk is on the paramite. *pulls curtain to reveal paramite* This is Cuddles, who will be our demonstating paramite for tonight. On we go. Paramites have no eyes, and no area to act as a melon for echolocation. Therefore I believe that they 'taste' the air in a way similar to a snakes. Also, their grasping mouthparts may act as hands (duh) and perform a function similar to whiskers, albiet not to the same degree of sensitivity. This still lacks precision however. They have no ear funnels and so cannot pinpoint sound or use it as a method of confirming somethings presence. Let's bring in a friend to help with our demonstration. *produces mudokon in a padded suit from behind a screen* This is Al. So far, Cuddles can tell Al is here and what he is, but she can only gauge how far away Al is by sound (which becomes irrevelent once Al is quiet) and by tasting the air for the heat he gives off. The tips of Cuddle's 'fingers' are somewhat bulbus, which would not be necessary if they were only mouthparts. They may be highly sensitive pads which pick up vibrations. This is one of the more far fetched theories, as air is not great at conducting vibration and those pads really aren't very big. Also, if these pads were very sensitive then placing them on mouthparts may not be very effective, as Cuddles is now effectivly blind while feeding. To compensate this, Cuddles would need larger pads elsewhere. On her head, between the bones of her mouthparts is an area that can be used for this. So, where is Cuddles now? She can hear Al when he moves and she can taste the heat he gives off on the air. (Here comes the really far fetched bit ) With the sensitive pads on her head and mouthpart tips, she can feel the slight movements of the air as it shifts to allow for Als expanding chest as he breathes. But perhaps they aren't pads at all? Perhaps they are mini-melons. These questions are likely to remain unanswered untill such time as we kill and dissect dear Cuddles, which would be quite simply wrong and will never happen. And with that thought, ladies and gents, I shall leave you. Goodnight!

[caracal]

Hm, well if you consider beings like snakes, and scorpions, it isnt so far fetched that just with a few smell organs Paramites can see perfectly.

scorpions use their multiple legs to feel the vibrations on the ground, and by sensing the delay a vibration has going from leg to leg they triangulate their prey's location.

The snake's eyes are practically useless, so they have very sensitive tounges, and a specially shaped nostril to see by heat. they actually see mainly by smell.

therefore I dont think it is farfetched to think a paramite could have a very effective smell based triangulating sytem given how many fingers they have. And I dont see a problem at all with them being blind while they eat, they do completly ignore you when they are eating them, dont they?

[viper19]

About the paramites ignoring you while they eat, I read a Rune Stone in AE, and it said in the "diet" part: "Diet: meatballs and slow Mudokons~In that order" so that should explain it... (duh)

[Fuzzle Guy]

The teeth may be flesh?

But all bones rot away after thousands of years, who knows how long those bones have been in Necrum?

[big bro boogie]

The teeth may be flesh?

Mudokon teeth possibly are like human nails or animal horns, growing incredibly slow once the Muds are over a certain age.
After a human body rots away, his hair and nails (both made out of horndust(?)) rot away too.
That's possibly the same for mudokon teeth.

And about bones rotting away, I bet that bones get grinded away by movement of layers of ground.

[Xavier]

I like your theory bbb...
it's the one who makes the most sence to me

[ANN NEELY]

Mudokon teeth possibly are like human nails or animal horns, growing incredibly slow once the Muds are over a certain age.
After a human body rots away, his hair and nails (both made out of horndust(?)) rot away too.
That's possibly the same for mudokon teeth.

And about bones rotting away, I bet that bones get grinded away by movement of layers of ground.

Nails, hair and horns are made from keratin.

[big bro boogie]

Nails, hair and horns are made from keratin.

That's the word, thank you.

In my country it's called:
"Hoornstof" (or "keratine")
Litterally tranlated:
Horndust...

[monkeybait]

1. Mudokons have no teeth in their jaws, but in Munch's Oddysee we can plainly see Abe and Alf's pearly whites in the FMVs. My theory: Perhaps their teeth are made of cartilage or some solid material that would otherwise rot away and not be found in the fossil record of Necrum.

Or... Lourne Lanning didn't think that anyone would pay that close attention...

[Oddish]

Acualty there is video based on G4, and you clearly see their teeth, I'll try to find it.

[big bro boogie]

Ok, you do that.
But I've always wondered about the lifestyle of Live-Ammo.

Fuzzles: It seems that they're flesh eating traps of fur which can ambush other critters easily (like bug eating plants do.). My point is: They're small, how do they digest and breath through very tiny lungs. And stuff. (as the mouth takes away half of the body. Huge eyes, ok, the hunting. Their nose seems to be blocked by hair, as the one in the intro (OSW) sniffed.

Chippunks: These can live like the normal squirrels. It seems. But I don't get their evolution; They have little arms, for digging themselves in? Huge eyes, for looking who they're talking to? Sharp teeth, for ripping off hunted meat?
It seems they'd be living quite good with fuzzles.

Bolamites: Normal spider life? Changing colours for the environment they life in? (like humans)

Stingbees: Normal bee life? Possibly.

Boombats: (Lol, I've just typed BooBBats.) Just like the fuzzles. The face takes half the body. Huge eyes, hunting (yeh...yeh...). Nose, smelling prey. And what's the point for them exploding? Hunting enemies? But the explosion kills the Boombat anyhow. And what makes them this explosive?

Stunks: Live like normal skunks? Possible. Only their stench is gaseous instead of liquid.

Thudslugs: Really, they're too heavy to fly. How come that they fly? What happens with their wings after being shot down? How do they hunt? (Flying into an enemy wouldn't be a nice feeling for them to do.) So, how about dropping onto land preys?
Or better, they're herbivore.

And last of all, Zapflies:
It's still weird how Stranger uses them. Lorne describes it like this: One shot of a Zapfly is a squeesed-out electrical bolt. After shooting you still contain the ONE zapfly.
Yet when you walk into a wall in first person and shoot a non-surged zapfly, you can clearly see it stuck in the wall. A surged zapfly seems to burn away. (???)
Anyway, their hunting style would be simple: Herbivore or to shock preys.
And then again: The digesting problem. Or do they live just like an other insect? Who knows...

[Dipstikk]

Or... Lourne Lanning didn't think that anyone would pay that close attention...

That's not the point. We're discussing and thinking of the species as biological creatures, not as game characters made of pixels.

[Munch's Master]

Bogie you have some good ideas there. I'll address the fuzzle one thuogh with my guess:
In MO, and I think SW, fuzzles tend to work in packs, rather than single creatres. This suggests to me that they may hunt like a cross between hyenas (they are scavenegrs right?) and raptor. Basically I'd guess they hunt their prey, work together to kill it, then strip off little parts of it and maybe leave some. Or they scaveneg off injured or dead creatures. That way their small bodies would cope as they'd only eat small amounts of food.
I'll do my theories on the others once I' mawake fully and have had some coffee.

[Dipstikk]

and raptor.

Your theory works except for that part.

We have no idea how dromaeosaurs hunted, we can oly vaguely theorize. There is the popular image of a pack of dinonychus taking down a tenotosaurus, but that again is only a theory.

(Although, I can check with my friend about the deinonychus thing, there might be some reality behind that.)

There is also no fossil or substantial evidence to prove that dromaeosaurs hunted in packs. It's only a theory made into a public opinion by that piece of crap Jurassic Park that everyone seems to worship as "the one and only truth about dinosaurs".

Ahem, sorry about that. The dinosaur geek strikes again!

My theory on fuzzles: They have very simplistic digestive systems. Food is digested very fast but efficiently, which is why they crap so much (you heard what Humphrey and Irwin said about Fuzzle poo). They may have a fast metabolism to deal with food like that.

[Munch's Master]

Oh well, It doesn't matter. I was just trying to illustrate that they may be a cross between scavenger pack animals and hunter pack animals. It doesn't have to be a raptor, just any pack killer (that targets bigger but less defended prey eg. Fuzzles on an unarmed Vykker could be like a real-life pack on a uch bigger but mostly defenceless creature)

[Seargentbig]

It occours to me that a better annalogy would be wolves. Yeah. That fits.

Uh... Sligs. They're probably aboreal (Tree-dwelling), with only their two muscled limbs to support them. In the slig barracks of AE, you see them squirming across the floor, showing that their hands are not good at handling flat floors. Their tentacles would be good at handling items for eating or transport while their limbs moved them.

[Teal]

Uh... Sligs. They're probably aboreal (Tree-dwelling), with only their two muscled limbs to support them. In the slig barracks of AE, you see them squirming across the floor, showing that their hands are not good at handling flat floors. Their tentacles would be good at handling items for eating or transport while their limbs moved them.

- that was a theory doing the rounds waaay back before Stranger weas ever announced - I remember it, I think I instigated it. Nice to see someone sharing the same idea.

Mudokon teeth - they could simply be loose and fall out when the body decomposes. Or maybe they make false ones to cope with all the fast food Glukkons try and feed them.

And Dipstikk - you're right about the dinosaur analogy. Recent research seems to show that the famed velociraptor "killing claw" was too blunt to slash through meat the way it's so often depicted doing (it's only sharp at the top - they made a to-scale mockup and the claw just made little holes in the meat), and they think it was used more for HOLDING. Someone said it's "palaentologists postulating from bony evidence without actually experimenting if it's possible". So just because you have bones, that's no indication your hypothesis works.

[Munch's Master]

Hi Teal! I remember reading in the archives stuff about arboreal Sligs, wasn't there a full topic about it? But I think that sounds likely, they swing between branches with their hands, use their tails to help build momentum and direction, and use their face tentacles for extra grip, like a Monkey's tail.

[Seargentbig]

Really? Damn. Maybe I read it once and forgot about it...