Chocobo Anatomy

[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.

[CGMidlander]

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

About this much.



lol

[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. ).

[Kaiser-Ace]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7EccguAfs

Assuming I linked that correctly, That should be a link to the "Aki's Pixel Pets" Episode on the chocobo.

Mentions the Miyazaki inspiration, their similarities to terror birds (Which they actually aren't), and a general run down on how their anatomy likely works.

[CyrilLucifer]

They always reminded me most of Dromornithidae.

Amusingly, Dromornis is an ancestral waterfowl. So it's basically a giant 1000+ lb duck.
When I was doing upper division studies in Waterfowl and Gamebird Ecology, the general joke about Anseriformes (waterfowl; ducks, geese, etc) and Galliformes (gamebirds; chickens, pheasants, etc) were that they're really just "Tastegoodiformes." And, since Chocobo taste good, they must be in one of those closely-related orders.

Yep. Sound logic, if I do say so myself.

[Kaiser-Ace]

Hey, that might be a good base for the swimming chocobo variants in final fantasy. Instead of Giant Chickens they're Giant Ducks. lol

[CyrilLucifer]

Oh, belatedly, for the more anal about anatomy. Spoilered for those who hate science in fantasy.

The biggest problem with the XIV Chocobo design is their legs. They drive me crazy.

The general rule in all birds is that the farther the legs are back on their body the worse they are at walking and running. As a runner, the Chocobo's legs should really, really be towards the middle of their body. Birds with legs that far back would be terrible at escaping predation on land.

Now, Galliformes can get away with legs relatively far back on their body because they're usually very strong burst fliers. They can get into the air quickly due to their short, strong wings. Galliformes aren't going to be running to escape a predator.

Since someone mentioned an Ostrich, look at how centered their legs are in comparison to their body and compare that to the XIV Chocobo design up there. And going off my Anseriform example above, compare the leg placement of a Snow Goose and a Western Grebe (Grebes are a pretty extreme example, though, and also not an anseriform). Snow Geese spend a lot of time foraging and nesting on Land, and Grebes are basically water-only divers.

[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