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Biological Anthropology of the Deadbeat
The inhabitants of /morig/, the deadbeats, are physically quite an odd specimen when compared to the human and demi-human inhabitants of /vt/. Physicians have dissected deadbeats and found that perhaps unsurprisingly their bones are incredibly dense and strong.
The explanation for this is of interest. The deadbeat bone seems to be very highly mineralized for one; where a standard human bone may be measured to contain 60 to 70% of minerals by weight, deadbeat bone contains up to 80%. Moreover, where mineralization is normally accomplished through the deposition of calcium phosphate, deadbeat bone is found to contain a large fraction of biologically synthesized iron oxyhydroxide, or goethite. The mineral is organized as nanofibers weaved through the porous structure of the bones parallel to the major stress axes, granting remarkable toughness to the material. The folk legend that deadbeats have bones of steel may have begun when a deadbeat bone was found to be weakly magnetic due to this high iron content.
The flesh and muscle are less developed than the average humanoid's. In appearance, the average deadbeat will look like an unhealthily thin person due to this low muscle and fat tissue volume, even if the individual is perfectly healthy. This emaciated appearance is thus not a cause for concern. The composition of these softer tissues is responsible for this; alongside a degree of calcification, they have a reduced water content, as low as 40% compared to 76% as found in common mammalian muscle. This does not however impede the function of the musculoskeletal system. This high dehydration reduces the blood supply to the muscle, but this is mitigated by adaptations in the cardiovascular system; polycythaemia is present, due to high red cell and nutrient content in the blood, and cardiomegaly is consistently observed, the larger heart being able to pump more of the thicker blood where it is required. A corollary of this high viscosity is that superficial cuts will tend to stop bleeding relatively quickly, but this does mean that deadbeats, especially older or unhealthy ones, are prone to blood clots.
The heavier skeleton and reduced soft tissue results in deadbeats being on average the same weight as most humans people, with the exception of the Goddess Faithful priestesses. This will be touched on later in this article. This high overall density results in deadbeats being very poor swimmers, although submersion can still be prevented with vigorous swimming.
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