Memnarchidae, while a funny name idea, would have to be the family name. But Carnea could easily be the order name.

Aside from being smaller, I think the revised gigatus should have more graviportal legs. The leg segments can be shorter and thicker, and the leg itself strait or nearly so, instead of bent. This animal needs strong legs to hold up its weight, but it is not using those legs to run or jump or climb so they need not be nimble or slender.

PS: I added link to my projest, to sketch posts %)

Also, I’d love to see your site anyway. I’d love to look through the images

I also speculated gigatus’ possible evolution line (and another line into scorpion-like creature). Making realistic big arthropods is quite difficult, I used one of the possible ways in my project (planet of Wastorum, but it’s in Russian)- lung-like organ near the “belly” or “chest” that works like pump, but my creatures have different anatomy. I never saw a creature like gigatus before %)

1) Classification: the word “Araneae” is already used for spiders, another class. I think, these creatures could be called “Titanisectiae” or “Memnarchidae” (yep, gigatus really looks like Memnarch from Mirrodin world, “Magic: the Gathering” %)). I think there also must be special subtype of arthropods (or even special type) because bugs from Earth could not evolve this way (they need too much oxygen, and gigatus with insect “lungs” can’t breath even if it does not move).

2) Inner anatomy: it can look like bug, but it must have absolutely another organs: something like lungs (I think of 6-7 pairs of these lungs along the body), much more complex nervous system, and normal blood or something that could transfer food to all its cells.

3) Outer anatomy: gigatus has biggest eyes of all living beings (giant squid’s eyes are 30-40 sm, and gigatus’- 1,5-2 meters, and much more complex). It could easily look at another galactics with such powerful vision! %)
Also I don’t think that its legs are strong enough to stand its weight. Those zigzag limbs are not very good for that.

4) Behavior: it is too slow, and even smallest predator or flies would have enough time to completely destroy its killed victim. Also, the pile of bones under its body can easily unmask gigatus and fear his potential food, so it must walk from time to time over the forest (maybe half a mile after every 7-8 dinners). Most of forest animals don’t have good memory, so gigatus can always be masked.

5) Evolution: such a big creature must have very complex evolution line and lots of relatives. And all these creatures must have good ecological niches. That means all the big bugs must effectively compete with carnivorous mammals and other vertebrates. On Earth, mammals could not evolve into something bigger than a dog because of dinosaurs. So I think gigatus must be either “alien” from other completely isolated regions of Morae world or prehistoric monster that lives in these places before vertebrates appearance (but this way is not very good because giant creatures can survive only in stable ecosystems, and stable insect ecosystem can not afford any vertebrate).
I have an idea that gigatus came from giant cave in mountains near the forest, and in this cave was that “stable insect ecosystem”. Because of lack of big predators in the forest, it could slowly migrate there. And its isolated cave could be opened after an earthquake %)

Also, when are you going to put up the website?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqolwulVlsc&feature=player_embedded#