Creature drawing

Alright, lets get started shall we? For this critique I'll mostly be looking at the creature itself and the idea behind it, not the drawing (mostly)

This creature is certainly interesting it has many features seen in real life animals which make it believable, from the pouch on its throat which is used in sexual displays or to ward off predators, to the spikes and plating on its back, which to me is reminiscent of an member of the Ankylosauridae family (a species of dinosaur). However some aspects of this creature I find to be a bit odd in comparison to the rest of the creature.

First off, the placement and use of the gular sac I find to be quite interesting, it is not dissimilar to those found on some species of frog, and the use is quite similar to frogs as well. I quite like the gular sac as it adds a layer of reality to the creature. It causes viewers to think of frogs, an animal which already exists. The spikes on the gular sac are a nice touch, but are they soft like those of a bearded dragon from Australia? As I think they'd hurt the creature itself when deflated.

The back plating and spikes are interesting, and as I stated before it reminds me of a member of the Ankylosauridae family, I am assuming they are for defense due to their placement. But perhaps they could be for intimidation purposes or even a sex-linked trait, as the larger/more prominent/more colourful they are, the better the chance the male has of breeding (or even the Alpha has very bright/large/prominent plating and spikes compared to other non-alpha males) this is only my view however, and as the artist you have full control of these features and their uses. (however this could also go for the gular sacs as well)

This creature is an amphibious species, and the skin is semi-permeable as stated in the description, but due to their size I think they would spend a large quantity of time in the water, similar to hippos, the size of their feet suggest this, as to be such a large land creature with a considerable weight in tow, the feet would be much larger to support the full weight of the animal (this also suggests that they are very slow moving creatures).

And now onto areas that I feel could be improved or worked on, the horns personally I feel should be rethought, not that they're a bad idea, but that for this creature they are a bit unnecessary. If a predator decided to attack this creature the first point they would go for are the horns. Long and probably not made of keratin like other animals, these are prime weak points for this animal. And also, are they stiff or movable? If these horns are stiff then they will behave as more of a barrier than anything else due to the sheer length of them. However if they are movable then they would still get caught and stuck in or on things. Perhaps they could be shorter or fused with the creatures back?

The other area that I feel that could be improved upon is the feet, as I stated before, in my opinion (and I am no expert) I think that the feet and ankles must be far larger to spread out and support the animal's sheer weight, but I have already addressed that. (another area is the head and neck. The rise from the head to the back is too much, I think that the head should be raised higher, look at an Ankylosaurus to see what I mean)

I hope this helps and i genuinely like this creature. Have fun designing and I can't wait to see more <img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/b/b…" width="15" height="15" alt="" data-embed-type="emoticon" data-embed-id="366" title=" (Big Grin)"/>