Cobra-Taur Questions

[HoneyBadger]

Hey, guys, I thought since the comic is nearing the end, I would make a thread that would be dedicated to the Blue Volcano Mythos.   You know their anatomy and other random things.

For example:  Do female Blue Mythos lay eggs or give birth to their young?

[ZacAttac21]

Hey, guys, I thought since the comic is nearing the end, I would make a thread that would be dedicated to the Blue Volcano Mythos.  You know their anatomy and other random things.

For example:  Do female Blue Mythos lay eggs or give birth to their young?

The grow from seeds in the dirt.

JK, I'm betting eggs. All that lava would make for a hardcore incubator. Plus, they seem kinda reptilian to me.

[HoneyBadger]

XD

The females probably lay eggs since they don't have a mammary glands in their breasts.

[mithril]

that's no guarantee though.. some reptiles and fish give live birth, while monotreme mammals lay eggs and lack visable mammary glands.

[katasev]

Like sharks? I can see that... I've always found it kind of hard to imagine taurs in eggs - it works for things like snakes and fish because there aren't so many limbs all in the way, but curling a taur-baby up into an egg and then having the mother have to pass said egg...  I think it'd probably be easier on their bodies to give birth to live young.

A tendency to carry a single live young would also explain socially why males tend to try to have two wives at the least, so the first two children (hopefully both male) would be born nearly at the same time and so be the ideal equal rivals.

[ZacAttac21]

Like sharks? I can see that... I've always found it kind of hard to imagine taurs in eggs - it works for things like snakes and fish because there aren't so many limbs all in the way, but curling a taur-baby up into an egg and then having the mother have to pass said egg...  I think it'd probably be easier on their bodies to give birth to live young.

A tendency to carry a single live young would also explain socially why males tend to try to have two wives at the least, so the first two children (hopefully both male) would be born nearly at the same time and so be the ideal equal rivals.

Makes a lot of sense, but Ima stick with my seed-in-the-dirt theory because I'm painfully American.

[HoneyBadger]

that's no guarantee though.. some reptiles and fish give live birth, while monotreme mammals lay eggs and lack visable mammary glands.

Like the platypus?

[Merlin]

that's no guarantee though.. some reptiles and fish give live birth, while monotreme mammals lay eggs and lack visable mammary glands.

Like the platypus?

Yep, they express milk but don't have teats. It comes out through skin pores.

[Hariman]

Hmm. There are a few varieties of snake that give birth to live young, so eggs and live birth are both possibilities.

My personal theory is live young for Matilda's species of mythos. It just... seems to fit the species better to me. Well... unless the females have clutches of multiple children at one time. Then it could be either possibility.

It's one of those "can't be sure why, but that's what seems to fit" kind of theories. So I'm honestly not sure.

[Tapewolf]

Hmm. There are a few varieties of snake that give birth to live young, so eggs and live birth are both possibilities.

Arguably live young would make her more compatible with Dan if things get serious.

[HoneyBadger]

Hmm. There are a few varieties of snake that give birth to live young, so eggs and live birth are both possibilities.

Arguably live young would make her more compatible with Dan if things get serious.

You know what, that will -possibly- be the outcome in the future after Dan gets things sorted out with his Cubi side and Abel has come to terms with himself about his past and, I don't know, confront the dragon Hizzeell.

[mithril]

Hmm. There are a few varieties of snake that give birth to live young, so eggs and live birth are both possibilities.

Arguably live young would make her more compatible with Dan if things get serious.

unless they use amphibian or fish methods, i think she'd be computable with Dan anyway, what with cubi shapeshifting, and 'magical' genetics.

i would say though that viviparity would make sense given the known population dynamics.. Oviparity would make the "two sons, one daughter" population mix harder to pull off, while viviparity or Ovoviviparity [1] would keep the number of births per couple down and thus make it easier for the BVM's to do their population control. on the gripping hand, viviparity with only a single egg at a time, and Temprature dependent gender might fit the dynamic best.. they could actually dictate the sex of the offspring that way. though how you control temp in the blue-volcano might be tricky..

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

unless they use amphibian or fish methods, i think she'd be computable with Dan anyway, what with cubi shapeshifting, and 'magical' genetics.

i would say though that viviparity would make sense given the known population dynamics.. Oviparity would make the "two sons, one daughter" population mix harder to pull off, while viviparity or Ovoviviparity [1] would keep the number of births per couple down and thus make it easier for the BVM's to do their population control. on the gripping hand, viviparity with only a single egg at a time, and Temprature dependent gender might fit the dynamic best.. they could actually dictate the sex of the offspring that way. though how you control temp in the blue-volcano might be tricky..

Move it closer to the flow of lava?

[1] Not my footnote.

[HoneyBadger]

That doesn't seem like a very good idea to move the egg -that is if the female Mythos lay eggs at all-  close to a stream of lava if the egg shell isn't strong enough to handle the heat.


I still the idea that katasev came up about the females giving birth.

[katasev]

Why thank you!  Turns out that some sharks are actually ovoviviparous - the babies are technically formed inside eggs rather than a placenta, but instead of laying, the mother retains the eggs in her body until the baby (a) finishes chewing up the egg sac, and (b) is ready to be born (which occasionally involves eating the rest of your littermates). Great whites, for example. Blue sharks and hammerheads though still have regular viviparous births and live miniature young, so it just depends on the species of shark. Some other sharks also practice standard oviparous birth with egg-laying.

From an anthropological standpoint, though, I still think it makes the most sense for them to have a standard placental viviparous live birth scenario, as that's what generally creates a "family" or even a "herd" dynamic in the first place - the need to protect a pregnant mother. If birth were as easy as laying eggs for these guys, considering that they have no need to gather food (the crystals do that for them), I'd think their culture would be a considerably more solitary and scattered one.