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I had to go all the way to Generation 12's Neo Furtim Carpotesta Luceremundare (quite a mouthful) to learn shrew bones are made from alien lichen-diatoms. At least I guessed correctly that they had descended from the Carpotesta Luceremundare.

It would be...interesting if these ended up developing bony elements very similar to shews' bones, like how crinoids segments could be mistaken for weird vertebrae.

The artwork looks nice.

This post has been edited by Coolsteph: Mar 31 2021, 06:50 PM

Well, Coolsteph, echinoderms DO have a true endoskeleton. Some of them, at least.

The idea of animals other than chordates having recognizable, somewhat vertebrate-like bones/bony elements is still a rather odd one to grasp. Scientifically, it makes sense. Intuitively, it's strange. Scientifically, birds are an offshoot of non-avian dinosaurs, and so are dinosaurs, which is fairly easy to grasp when one looks at accurate skin depictions of dinosaurs and looks at their skeletons. In the same way, though...humans are technically a really weird, derived kind of fish.

This post has been edited by Coolsteph: Apr 2 2021, 11:59 AM

Agreed.

(Speaking of skeletons, if you want to give input on my newly submitted genus that's a relative of this one, i would appreciate that. It has cartilage-like fibers on the inner edge of the ectoderm.)