*walks in holding a miniature Hokmuto in my arms, with his legs and wings dangling*
MUTO ecology headcanons? MUTO ecology headcanons?
Kaliido, you have opened the floodgates.
So, I headcanon that MUTOs are a coastal species, because everywhere a MUTO was willingly, it was a coastal environment. The Philippines, Janjira, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Hoboken, where Barb was sleeping. Yucca Mountain and Las Vegas are outliers- but Femuto didn’t go there willingly, she was taken to Yucca as a spore, and the rest of it is her seeking out radiation and then heading to the coast. (A non-ecology headcanon of mine is that she remembers Monarch cutting open and running tests on her as a fetus, which explains her being slightly more aggressive towards humans in the beginning than Hokmuto (who might have even learned to associate humans with food by that point)). Then, of course, the nest blows and she becomes way more aggressive.
Also, Hokmuto was able to dive deep enough to catch that Russian sub (or snatch it from the surface if it was surfacing at the time) and then carry it to Hawaii, where he proceeded to enjoy his nuclear missile munchies. He performs a similar stunt with the nuke boat in San Francisco Bay, diving on it from the clouds (in what I consider to be one of the most visually stunning shots of the MonsterVerse), then swimming underwater with it to the shore.
This leads me to believe that male MUTOs would fly out to sea to hunt, snacking on smaller ocean-going Titans such as Genitors or Squidfaces (the Skull Island Final Boss Thing), before carrying their catch back to the coast for their mates and babies.
Which brings me to the females. I believe that they would use their long forelimbs to root around in the mud and sand for prey such as Mire Squids, Trapdoor Crabs, or Sirenjaws. Nesting spires and cocooning sites would be dug into high cliffs or expanded from naturally-occurring sea caves to keep them safe.
Not sure how Primuto fits into all this but nobody cares about her.
In short, preferred feeding territory would be the open sea, barrier islands, brackish inlets, saltmarshes, and estuaries. Another tally on the “coastal” theory involves their preferred nesting host, Titanus Gojira- an ocean-going and semiaquatic species. Males would lure the Gojira to the coast, where he and the waiting mate would work together to subdue it, having lured the Gojira onto land, where it would be much clumsier and easier to bring down.
Another headcanon I have involves the nesting spire- namely, you can hear the babies chirping and chittering from inside their eggs. I believe that this was to allow them to coordinate their hatching time and to alert Mama and Papa to have food ready (Some crocodilians and birds do the same thing).
Another involves the spire itself, as well as the cocoon and the spores- namely, it’s a mix of the MUTO’s thick saliva and dirt/other materials. Spores that are injected into a host will form their shells from chewed-up bone or carapace matter.
As for the unseen larval stage- I believe it to be semi-aquatic, given the theories I have stated above and below, and the fact that baby Hokmuto was hauling ass over sea from the Philippines to Janjira.
My final headcanon is that I subscribe to the “MUTOs are derived lungfish” theory. Look up a lungfish skull and tell me that’s not the most MUTO thing you’ve ever seen. The metamorphic life cycle could be a form of neotenal larva developing into a fully formed adult (like an amphibian, but with an added cocoon for protection, given the transformation takes longer due to size and energy needs). Lungfish have working lungs, as their name suggests, meaning it’s not inconceivable that they could evolve to be full air-breathers as adults (esp. with Hollow Earth fuckery/by kaiju movie standards). The multiple limbs can be explained as being like a sea robin’s fingers (look it up). Lungfish cocoon themselves with saliva during droughts to survive. Etc. Not sure how the EMP factors in- mayhap could say it has something to do with the lateral line? One could say that their “eyes” aren’t even really eyes, but modified lateral lines (this explains the radio light flashing in time with Femuto’s “eye” pulsing). I do thing they have some form of visual sight though.
I’m aware some of these ideas contradict themselves, but a lot of the canon stuff about the MUTOs is contradictory as well.
Anyway, that concludes my lecture. Apologies for the long post, as you can tell I’m so normal about my lil buggy boys and girls.
So sorry for not responding to this ask sooner but I fucking love this!!!! The canon explanation for MUTOs and their biology has mostly left me unsatisfied (the parasite thing feels underdeveloped and all the different forms just don’t make sense? what is the purpose of the Prime or the Queen?? Why do they exist and why do they BOTH need to exist?). I love when people go “fuck canon” and just run wild with reinterpretation, this shit is my jam. Especially when it comes to the MV and reemphasizing that these monsters are animals with lifestyles beyond “graaah scary predator”. Awesome shit right here anon.
