Chocobo Anatomy

[Rocl]

I had never really thought about it but you're right. Chocobo wings make no sense--they're way too far back in comparison to their spine. A skeleton of our fine feathered friends would look wholly unnatural.

obvious allagan creations

[Niwashi]

My theory - a deliberately bred in domestic trait, because it made the birds easier to mount. There's room just in front of the bird's wings for a rider's legs. The chocobo's wild precursers would presumably have had wings more conventionally placed further forward, but with enough variation through random mutations that the change could be selected for by breeders.

[Judah_Brandt]

"Modeled after" in no way implies that they are anatomically identical. If I had said such I would expect a retort such as the one you provided. They clearly resemble one another, except one is an imaginary creature and the other an indigenous East African bird. Inspiration breeds creation, whimsical interpretation aside. Also the term 'cephalo' refers to the head, so I have no idea what bird you're thinking of that has limbs or wings attached to its skull. Check your anatomy and physiology book, please.

I apologize if this response sounded harsh.

[Enkidoh]

"Modeled after" in no way implies that they are anatomically identical. If I had said such I would expect a retort such as the one you provided. They clearly resemble one another, except one is an imaginary creature and the other an indigenous East African bird. Inspiration breeds creation, whimsical interpretation aside. Also the term 'cephalo' refers to the head, so I have no idea what bird you're thinking of that has limbs or wings attached to its skull. Check your anatomy and physiology book, please.

Wow, that is a bit harsh, even despite Jpec's comments and the fact that you are right. Jpec, the chocobo's origins are far far older than FFXIV. It was actually first created back in 1988 for Final Fantasy II by a staff member who doesn't even work for Square anymore (Koichi Ishii). Apparently he based their design both from the mascot of a Japanese chocolate bar, and on the 'horseclaws' from Hiyao Miyazaki's classic anime film Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind - who in turn reportedly took the design for them from the prehistoric diatryma species. A simple Google search would have turned up these pages which have the information you could require (and all the information known about the ideas that went into the species' design).

Really, this game has a nice handy hint in the title... it's fantasy. This is a world with giant dragons-encased in space stations and animal-human hybrid races and intelligent anthropomorphic cacti and god-like psychic powers granted by the planet's consciousness symbolized by a giant sentient crystal (among other things). Leave real-world science behind. Don't think about things like this too much and just enjoy it.

Incidentally, I'm sorry if it seems I was being nasty to both of you, I just wanted to point out that you really cannot try to juxtapose real-world anatomical/biological science to a fantasy creature (okay, I suppose you can try, but it's more fun not to, sometimes you just have to turn your brain off and enjoy things for what they are rather than how they are. ).

[CGMidlander]

How much do we know about the anatomy and physiology of chocobos in FFXIV?

About this much.



lol

[Kaiser-Ace]

So I'm guessing then that the longer neck wouldn't server as a counter Ballence?

Physics isn't exactly my strong suit.

At the same time, with the exception of Bandersnaches and possibly some Dragons, Chocobos don't seem to have very many natural preditors.

And it seems Bandersnaches may be primarily ambush preditors since it seems to be an Eorzean varient of a Big Cat. And Dragons being Aireal Alpha Preditors there's likly not much you can actually do to keep one from getting you if it wants to eat you.

So a Chocobo likely wouldn't have much use for speed and is likly more of an endurance animal seeing as how its often used as a beast of burden.

[CyrilLucifer]

Bandersnatch, Bears, and Dragons would absolutely be their predators. Also, Miacid and possibly Hippocerfs? I kind of saw Hippocerfs as the coyotes of the area. I'd go with Bandersnatch as the primary predators, though. Bears aren't really the "chase down the flighty, high-stamina prey" type predator (actually due to their feet! They have the same plantigrade foot morphology as humans do, compared to the digitigrade morphology of canids and felids, which do chase down prey. The more you know!).

Ecologically speaking, the Chocobos seem to have been outcompeted in the grassland area, where they were replaced with the mammalian Loaghtan, either because of a heavier weight or a greater ability to defend itself. Another reason this may have occurred is because aerial predation on something as large as a chocobo is extremely difficult in dense foliage, letting them gain a foothold in the forest regions. Or because SE wanted enemy variety.

Really, even just birds that commonly walk on land would have their legs closer to the center of their body, it doesn't matter if they're intended for running or not. Given there's no alternative prey in the region, you can bet that Chocobos are a primary prey animal for just about every large predator in the Forelands, so yes, they would need to escape and be able to move decently on land.

It's just an issue with the designer not really understanding bird morphology. Which is fine. We can't expect them to know all science.

Belated edit!
Now with an amusing movie demonstrating leg placement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcXIoG2gRdE

[The_NPC]

as much as our feathered alies are like a family dog to us doesnot make them any lest apetizing to an outsider, so to leave this here for fun: Kupotucky Firaga Chocobo (mental insert of a pic of a moogle dressed as Con. Sanders here)

[Kaiser-Ace]

as much as our feathered alies are like a family dog to us doesnot make them any lest apetizing to an outsider, so to leave this here for fun: Kupotucky Firaga Chocobo (mental insert of a pic of a moogle dressed as Con. Sanders here)

Be more akin to eating your horse. You might consider eating a wild horse, but eating YOUR horse is almost always out of the question.

[The_NPC]

yes if you treat "you're" horse/mount as family then of corse it would mentailly be outa the picture, but the same can't be said if u treat it like a tool to be used & discarded/replaced when not needed, just becuse it sounds wrong doesn't mean someone somewere wouldn't do it at some point, isn't RL chicken nuggets are made from live baby chickens with a vacum meat-grinder? (almost threw up when I saw a video of that... but I still eat them) just make sure their sacrifice wasn't in vain... thou to be fair if you can just make sure it doesn't come down to that then you're good. I do apologize if it came of as insulting or obserd I just wanted to with this reply point out it can happen & its possible someone might make a FF-style KFC using them (wether they get far with it is questionable)

back on the point thou they just seamed like a big flightless bird that SE used as a sudo-horse in FF to me, never really looked that close or new enouf to care more

edit: also ant there a dish made from house cats... anyway if u really want I'll go back to surfing the forms this is just 1 of a few posts I ever make cause the "saltlyness" on here can be right up crazy