What is the Lost River skeleton?
Jamezorg
United Kingdom Join Date: 2016-05-15 Member: 216788Members
United Kingdom Join Date: 2016-05-15 Member: 216788Members
I think it's time we really put our heads together and speculate about what that giant-ass dead creature in the Lost River actually is, and if we've ever actually heard about it in PDA entries or data downloads, so on. I'm going to split this post up into a few sections; one discussing some points that we should all bare in mind when thinking about this and and another where I talk about some of my personal theories or speculation (with balanced arguments, for and against my ideas). Let's all start theorising about this! I get excited about theories and stuff, so this should be cool 
Points:
This creature didn't die recently; it is overgrown and buried half in the ground.
It's not really a creature that we've seen before, or maybe it is but I'll get to that in a bit.
It's bones aren't particularly damaged, so I guess it wasn't killed (at least not physically, and at least not from the side we see).
That's all the points I really know, but maybe there are some more. I'll leave it up to you guys' common sense, if you're all okay with that
Personal Speculation:
In my mind there are two creatures that this could really be (at least that we know about), and they're both Sea Dragons, which I think this could possibly be, considering its position on the map and the fact that that is the closest creature that looks like it. Anyway, the first of these two creatures I have in mind (and this could only really be right at a stretch. A really, really big stretch but it's worth bringing up) is the Sea Dragon that Marguerit fought just before the Degasi survivors perished. The story goes that when the Degasi survivors were living in their Deep Grand Reef base, and they had found out they were sick, they attempted the exact same thing the Precursors attempted (rounding up lifeforms to try and find one immune to the bacterium). It sounds as though (due to descriptions given in data downloads) this creature was a young Sea Dragon (a large creature that uses tentacles to attack, which is something that we don't see happen in-game, but something that we're certain happens in the lore). The Dragon has been injured by Marguerit and Bart and Paul want nothing to do with her after this. Other Sea Dragons follow the trail of the young one, and eventually they attack the Degasi base. Marguerit grabs a chunk of metal, stabs one of the beasts in the neck and they trail into the murk. We don't know how large the creature was, but due to Marguerit's brash nature and her drive to follow her order (the protection of Bart and Paul) no matter what, she probably would have fought off the largest, most dangerous Dragon. Maybe this is the skeleton in the Lost River? Probably not, I don't exactly believe it, but I thought it was worth bringing up.
The next possibility is that this creature was the Sea Dragon that broke out from the nearby Precursor Facility and infected 4546B. The creature escaped and swam as far as it could before dying in the Lost River Bone's Field.
I love this theory, and I have a few head canons about it that no one else will really believe, but I'm going to bring them up anyway because they might hold some water (eyyy???). For me this explains why the creature looked so big and so different to Sea Dragons today: evolution. Over the course of about a thousand or two years they adapted, and changed. It also explains to me why the Lost River is so 'Lost'. Maybe this is where the Carar is most potent, since this is where the main source of the infection died. Maybe this is why the water here is so green and toxic, and why there are so many different types of creature skeletons here; because a lot of creatures died here. Maybe this is why this area has so many unique creatures; because the ones we already know cannot survive the Lost River, and only adapted creatures can survive. Maybe River Prowlers and other fish that live here are immune to Carar, but they just weren't developed at the time of the Precursors.
Out of these two theories I think the second one is the most likely (if either of them are correct). Have you guys got any theories, or anything to add? Thanks for reading so much
Points:
This creature didn't die recently; it is overgrown and buried half in the ground.
It's not really a creature that we've seen before, or maybe it is but I'll get to that in a bit.
It's bones aren't particularly damaged, so I guess it wasn't killed (at least not physically, and at least not from the side we see).
That's all the points I really know, but maybe there are some more. I'll leave it up to you guys' common sense, if you're all okay with that
Personal Speculation:
In my mind there are two creatures that this could really be (at least that we know about), and they're both Sea Dragons, which I think this could possibly be, considering its position on the map and the fact that that is the closest creature that looks like it. Anyway, the first of these two creatures I have in mind (and this could only really be right at a stretch. A really, really big stretch but it's worth bringing up) is the Sea Dragon that Marguerit fought just before the Degasi survivors perished. The story goes that when the Degasi survivors were living in their Deep Grand Reef base, and they had found out they were sick, they attempted the exact same thing the Precursors attempted (rounding up lifeforms to try and find one immune to the bacterium). It sounds as though (due to descriptions given in data downloads) this creature was a young Sea Dragon (a large creature that uses tentacles to attack, which is something that we don't see happen in-game, but something that we're certain happens in the lore). The Dragon has been injured by Marguerit and Bart and Paul want nothing to do with her after this. Other Sea Dragons follow the trail of the young one, and eventually they attack the Degasi base. Marguerit grabs a chunk of metal, stabs one of the beasts in the neck and they trail into the murk. We don't know how large the creature was, but due to Marguerit's brash nature and her drive to follow her order (the protection of Bart and Paul) no matter what, she probably would have fought off the largest, most dangerous Dragon. Maybe this is the skeleton in the Lost River? Probably not, I don't exactly believe it, but I thought it was worth bringing up.
The next possibility is that this creature was the Sea Dragon that broke out from the nearby Precursor Facility and infected 4546B. The creature escaped and swam as far as it could before dying in the Lost River Bone's Field.
I love this theory, and I have a few head canons about it that no one else will really believe, but I'm going to bring them up anyway because they might hold some water (eyyy???). For me this explains why the creature looked so big and so different to Sea Dragons today: evolution. Over the course of about a thousand or two years they adapted, and changed. It also explains to me why the Lost River is so 'Lost'. Maybe this is where the Carar is most potent, since this is where the main source of the infection died. Maybe this is why the water here is so green and toxic, and why there are so many different types of creature skeletons here; because a lot of creatures died here. Maybe this is why this area has so many unique creatures; because the ones we already know cannot survive the Lost River, and only adapted creatures can survive. Maybe River Prowlers and other fish that live here are immune to Carar, but they just weren't developed at the time of the Precursors.
Out of these two theories I think the second one is the most likely (if either of them are correct). Have you guys got any theories, or anything to add? Thanks for reading so much
Comments
I don't know if that's wholly true. It could have been made to study the skeleton, but it is heavily implied in Precursor data downloads that it was created specifically to fight Carar. I dunno, I might be wrong, but oh well
To me the entire things seems like a neck or tail, and if it was a counsin of the sea dragon would it not also have arms and fingers?
Welcome... To Subnautica Park!
Jokes aside, have we considered the possibility that the skeleton is a fossil? Even given the "intensified evolution" that occurs on 4546B (can't remember where I heard this
Overall, it would be a similar idea to how mammoth tusks are preserved in a real-life Siberia.
A nice natGeo article on it:
picture of mammoth tusk exposed in rock face, sort of like how skeleton is exposed in the lost river:
Lastly, here's a youtube video discussing the fine points of fossilization conditions.
What do you think?
Immanis Leviathan it is!
If we bend this a bit, it could help the Precursor Sea Dragon theory a little bit when you take into account accelerated evolution and fossilisation taking thousands of years. That's at a stretch, though, and a big stretch (it's probably not true at all). I am, however, sticking to this theory for now because it explains (for me, at least) why the Lost River is the way it is
Now before you go "WHAT" I do have one peice of evidence and a lot of speculation.
One of the warpers abilities is to warp predators to attack the player. Since the warpers ability are created by precursors, what as a last fail safe to sacure the loose dragon lavithan the precursors activated a "warper hub" that could warp any creature found within their empire, some evidence for this is the lack of any external limbs or a weird spine that is located at the bottom of the body instead of the top.
The creature is also oddly short for such a large head and the physiology of the beast is much different from any other predators on the planet. If this was true it might explain how such a large creature appeared down there without any sustainable food source.
*edit
Even during the first drafts of the biome the skeleton had a spine and rib cage and it was also much longer
*inhales deeply*