Greetings,

For any of you who have entered vault 92; you've no doubt faced the mirelurks warriors, and kings. The holotapes there speak of a madness growing among vault dwellers, and one depicts a subject shredding apart its victim bit by bit. Was vault 92 responsible for the creation mirelurks (specifically in fallout 3) or have I interpreted the situation incorrectly?

Thanks.

Edit: Not to mention that the kings look strangely human. Kinda reminds me of a creepy version of Abe from Hellboy. ;-/

Its said in game during a quest that they're descended from crabs.

Yeah, they look like a mutated cross between your typical crab and a horseshoe crab.

Is it possible that the kings could be some kind of mutated human which somehow evolved in cohesion with the mirelurks? They don't seem very "crabbish" to me...

Well, my theory is that everyone inside the vault mentioned went mad, went rebel or loyal thus killing each other with possible survivors fleeing the vault. Either way, considering the reactor area was flooded I think thats a pretty good area for the Mirelurks to have begun their new evolution from crab since there is plenty of radiation which seems to be the standard in the Fallout world to create new mutant species.

It says in the art book that came with the collectors edition that mirelurks are mutated Maryland blue crabs and are exclusivly native to the capital wastes.

Yeah, the Chesapeake's known for crabs. I heard they judge your character based on how you eat your crab.

They evolved from the mudcrabs in Oblivion. Nasty creatures!

i saw a mudcrab the other day, nasty creatures!

Yepp, be sure to bring a flamethrower....that way you can have business and pleasure at the same time aka XP and Barbecue.

Oblivion happened over 9,000 years before the events in Fallout 3, so I can buy that mudcrabs evolved into mirelurks.

Actually, Oblivion happened in a completely separate world from Fallout 3 and has no connection to it at all, in fact, if Nirn were a parallel universe to the Fallout one, it could even have happened at the same time.

But anyway, although the mirelurks are said to have descended from crabs in the game, in appearance, I find that they seem to have some traits of horseshoe crabs, most notably in the shape of their carapace when viewed from the back, whether this resemblance means anything or if Bethesda's designers just decided they, I don't know.

There is your answer people. Say's that in my art book too

Well no wonder they mutated then, have you seen how polluted the chesepeake is?

I just wonder if they will be a future target for the descendants from the discovery show "Deadliest Catch"?

No, but give it a few years and monster hunters will be searching for mireluks in the tidal basin.

I am going to start hitting the Mirelurks with the Sishkebab or Flamer and have me a crab boil.

So what about Nukalurks ala Nuka-Cola bottle facility?

Mirelurks hiked up on the Nuka Cola Quantum that's leaked all over the bottling room floor.

I wonder if it'd be possible to alter the effects of drinking that stuff on the ground to match the effects of drinking a Quantum...

Well Nuka lurks are Mirelurk hatchlings exposed to the isotope that gives Nuka-Cola quantum its distinct "Kick"

Mire lurks are, as has been said descended from crabs.

Mirelurk kings, interestingly enough are descended from snapping turtles.

Look in your art book, it says "Mirelurk, snapping turtle varient" in the artists notes.

I still don't know how crabmen and turtlemen can get along....

forced alliance between crab and turtles vs. say super mutants and raiders?

Simply put: Crab People.

Un-simply put: When Atlantis sank into the sea, everyone died. Soon, it was infested by crabs and various other sealife. Many moons later, before the bombs fell; the world was powered by nuclear fusion and nuclear waste disposal in the sea was imminent. One day an angry mother dumped her son's sea monkeys into the ocean, whilst he clang to her leg screaming "NO MOMMY NO THEY'RE REEEEAAAALLLL!!!!". After telling her son that his elder brother was indeed the favorite, she followed through with a swift backhand; knocking the boy onto his rear end. Roughly 31.048 seconds later, the first bombs fell, searing the flesh off both the young boy and his hirsute beast of a mother, leaving only ashes and the smell of burnt hair and plastic. The sea monkeys managed to survive the explosion by hiding in a coral reef, conveniently located directly next to Atlantis. Here, the sea monkeys (now swollen with radiation poisoning) met the crabs which were also swollen with radiation poisoning. They soon fell in love and fornicated to Barry White's Greatest Hits. 9 months later, the first baby Mirelurks were born. They sang and played in the ruins of Atlantis, whilst the song from Disney's The Little Mermaid "Under The Sea" looped over and over as background music. When they reached the tender age of 2, they weighed a whopping 900 pounds and were incredibly vicious. They emerged from the ocean, and immediately devoured a wastelander bathing in the waves, thus coining the term "The Terrible Two's". The Mirelurks migrated across the wasteland killing, fornicating, and going "number 2" all over the place. And from then on, they became known as The Mirelurks, due to their hard shells and faces that explode when shot point blank with a .44 caliber magnum.

And before you ask, no I'm not a Doctor, but I do drive a Mercedes.

The mirelurks contain genomes from both the blue crab and the horse shoes crab. my reference? the enclave computer terminal east of sprigvale school.

He's lookin' at you kid

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Bathynomus_giganteus.jpg

There's many, many aquatic critters with similar layout to mirelurks. My money's on Tamrielic mudcrabs though, regardless what the enclave terminal saays

In the movie-references-thread, it was stated by somebody that Mirelurk Kings resemble the Creature from the Black Lagoon, never seen the film, so I really can't tell.