I'm really surprised with this preview. I found myself wondering what things would change, and I'm the most excited over the whiskers on the male's head. Currently they look like tentacles or an old man's mustache imo, and I prefer the new whisker look. All in all, good job artists! ^-^b

I agree the barbels look a bit 'off' but that's because they curve straight back too far from the tip, if they were more like a catfish's barbels, they'd look more natural.

I also agree that both genders should have them since the biological purpose of barbels is not limited by gender in nature. Barbels are used to detect a range of scents and motion in the water and to feel along the bottom usually in search of prey...they're usually rather stiff with limited flexibility for that reason. There are exceptions to that, but those tend to be a great deal longer, to the tune of at least a foot.

Some species that have barbels actually have thicker ones which are lined with muscles, allowing them to control the movement somewhat, but there too, the barbels would be stiffer.

I'm not much of a vorpa person, but the revamp looks really great! Nice job (:

Good points IMO, Miakokins & Nabiki. Perhaps if the barbels retained their new swept-back look but, instead of being a continuous, flattened-C curve, were nearly straight from the base almost to the tip, where they then distinctly curve. The combination of curving and narrowing to the tip would look really wispy-tendril-like. I think it would make the barbels look longer than they really are. Ideally, they'd look as though the animal does have the ability to flick the barbels forward, back, wherever.

I'm not sure you are giving thought to the sheer flexibility of amphibians, Katasaur. ;) They can indeed bend their feet in a wide variety of manner. I've never owned an Axolotl, the species that inspired the Vorpa, but I have had plenty of newts, and they are designed to be able to grasp things such as plant life, rocks, etc. Ergo, they have highly flexible little feet.

Must keep in mind these are soft-bodied creatures which seldom leave the water, though, and which are limited with much softer bones that can move in ways that a land-based amphibians cannot. The average land toad, for instance, might have problems with the same motion, while still being an amphibian.

I think what needs to be clarified, in this question, is 'just how soft are the bones' and also, 'do they spend as much time in air or on land as a toad or frog does? If so, the bones will not be so soft and this of course would include the joints.

I think the only barbels I've ever seen that look like the ones on the new drawings are on Nurse Sharks....

Speaking of sharks...why don't we have any? Or something like bottle-noses, for that matter. Or a giraffe like creature...hooved, a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong neck....that would be cool.

I see what you are saying Zelly, but while Vorpas may have been inspired by axolotls, they are not axolotls. They have very different body structures than axolotls do, and actually appear to have a more mammalian shape to their legs and torso. I personally think of the vorpa anatomy as a cross between an axolotl and an otter. While the axolotl's legs are very short and stick out to the sides of their body, the otter's support the torso from below, like the vorpa's do. So if the vorpa's legs are structured to work like the otter's and other mammals, they should follow the anatomy of one.


(BTW, I hope my tone doesn't come across as rude. Not my intent at all! I'm just discussing, not arguing lol)

The newts that I owned are much more capable of land travel than the Axolotl, but they still retain the same soft bone structure and the basic ability to roll their legs almost ala exorcist style, haha.

The Axolotl is actually in permanent larval stage. http://www.axolotl.org/ has an example of what happens if the Axolotl is given hormones, or spontaneously develops past larval stage in the wild. They basically turn into salamanders, which are pretty close in anatomy to newts. ^^ I imagine the Vorpa are likely based on the concept of an Axolotl keeping it's larval charms in a more salamander-capable body, as they are able to get out of the water and follow us around on land as battle pets.

Edit: Was posting this prior to seeing Katasaur's reply. While I do agree that the anatomy may be partly otter based, It's hard for us to say how much is mammalian and how much is amphibian based on a fantasy creature mish-mashing the two. ^^