Always Smiling

The bonepicker is a form of war zombie which I've invented for my novel. In this case, the zombie mutation virus takes over a human skeleton after death and devours the marrow to fuel its transformation into what you see here. The bones are hollowed out, and clumps of cells evolve into an internal muscular system, leaving the bones themselves as an exoskeleton. Once the transformation is completed, the zombie absorbs ambient magical energy for food.

Bonepicker bone grows at the same rate as human hair. Because it never actually STOPS growing, bonepickers more than a few years old will resemble pituitary giants--their bones will become thick and lumpy, their digits may begin growing together, and bone begins to fill the cavities in the skull and between the ribs. This growth is unchecked because, when the virus was originally created by well-meaning but ill-informed wizards circa 1436, nobody actually thought a bonepicker would last long enough for its bones to grow. Nowadays, when a bonepicker may have been abandoned in a cellar somewhere for thirty years or more, they grow more and more grotesque.

An important part of bonepicker evolution is the thin tendrils of bone which jut from its back and sides. Given that it doesn't have eyes, the creature uses rudimentary echolocation to see its environment; it produces sound waves by clacking its jaws repeatedly, and gains a rough picture of the area through the vibrations of the tendrils.

And because I'm obsessed enough to actually create a creature classification, its highly unoriginal scientific name is Osseocorpus nonnatus, roughly meaning "bone body not born."