Dragon anatomy - muscles

The muscle table was paintedd directly over the skeleton to ensure a good match.The muscles are quite conservative among vertebrates, so I didn’t have to invent much. This is a combination of mammalian and reptilian / avian anatomy, for the most part. The biggest difference is again in the shoulder area, where the wing muscles attach.

1997
Digital painting
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Viewers' comments

Good night (or whatever time it is :) ).

Could you give any additional comments about that very shoulder area? I just can't make it out clearly, which muscle is connected to which bone, so that it would make the flight possible.

Drake
Sun, Feb 21 2010 20:35
Technically, that shoulder area is all fantasy. I just mirrored the muscles for the foreleg on the wing, mostly. So you get a kind of "double" arrangement on both sides of the shoulderblade. But it is not worked out down to the attachment of muscles: just enough to suggest a structure. Since the muscles connect to the ribcage through the shoulderblade, in flight such an arrangement would have involved the shoulderblade sliding up and down, with the whole shoulder structure working, not unlike how it moves in a galloping quadruped.

If I were doing it now, and for fun, not on commission, I'd probably work out the exact shapes of the bones and the precise muscle attachment points. But this one is designed to look as if it works, not really work. It's just plausible enough for that.

Eugene Arenhaus
Mon, Feb 22 2010 16:02
The wings should be connected to the pecs if it wants to leave the ground at all, it's nearly vestigial as it is. It should be the other way round with the arms if you must have six limbs.
Brett
Thu, Jan 19 2012 06:58
Thank you for the critique, Brett! Actually, I agree with you about the wings.

Bear in mind this is from 1997, and my knowledge of anatomy is much better now than it had been back then. I had considered reworking the tables and making an improved version. However, these old tables are all over the net, and even if I issue a fixed or new version, it would hardly make a dent in the memetic mass already entrenched. So history stays history for now.

Eugene Arenhaus
Thu, Jan 19 2012 10:22
How do I get a print of this?
Jessica Ledford
Sun, Jan 22 2012 23:02

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