dragonlady7

via https://ift.tt/3sYsls4

laurelnose https://laurelnose.tumblr.com/post/649082270548983808/it-occured-to-me-at-curbside-today-that-the :

laurelnose https://laurelnose.tumblr.com/post/649033117504520193/it-occured-to-me-at-curbside-today-that-the :

[image: 3 pencil drawings with digital color on top: a drowner tadpole, a tadpole with four legs just beginning to get a neck, and a grinning drowner child in a frog-like pose with a short tail.]

it occured to me at curbside today that the problem with vodniczki https://laurelnose.tumblr.com/post/646130386715443200/what-roles-do-drowners-and-drowner-tadpoles-play, our lovely fat drowner tadpoles, is that at some point they have to metamorphose… a neck

the obvious solution would be to go with salamander larvae instead of tadpoles, which I reject in favor of giving you this awful little frogchild. I figure a vodniczek with a neck still spends the majority of its time underwater, and retains a cartilaginous skeleton. by the time she fully resorbs her tail, her pelvis will have adjusted to allow for bipedalism and all of her ossification centers will be present. young vodniks probably begin grouping up around this stage, as their facial muscles and vocal cords gain the range for social cues; these bands greatly increase their survival odds and their ability to stake out territory when they leave the water. don’t get too close; when they were tadpoles, a flexible and unfused lower jaw helped them suck down prey whole, but at this stage of development their mandibular symphysis is fusing to transition them into a feeding strategy involving a lot more tearing, and the young drowners are thrilled by their rapidly increasing bite force.

bonus: these preliminary gesture sketches which are cute and also obviously me going “ffffrog??? nnneck? pe lvis??” [image: tiny ballpoint gesture sketches of tadpoles and froglets, plus a froglet with a neck and a baby drowner]

[image: screenshot of tumblr tags: #oh no CUTE #stop making me love drowners op this is ridiculous]

i will convince all of you that drowners are the best monster or i will DIE TRYING [image: Blue and red pencil drawing of a grinning young drowner with a little tail lunging forwards to grab a fish around the midsection.] (Your picture was not posted)