Aries Design: Truly Aries, or actually based on Capricorn?

[eggyk]

As far as I’m concerned, he drew it as he saw it.

The question is did he see it in a field, or did he see it in a book? Considering both "designs" exist in and out of books, and that we have no idea exactly where or how the VMS artist lived, or whether the VMS artist was well travelled, or which animals he had and had not seen, it seems rather premature to make a declaration either way. 

Just because a species used to exist, does not mean the other species did not exist. We see twisted horn rams across the centuries, and we see VMS shaped horns across the centuries. How can we know which were drawn from personal experience, and which were copied? We literally cannot know.

And all of this assumes the VMS artist was actually capable of drawing what he meant correctly, which frankly, doesn't seem likely given how bad the drawing quality is in general.

All of this is why the "drawing convention" matters more than the actual species. If VMS had LEO gnawing at some trees like VMS Aries, I would have made the exact same thread claiming Leo was inspired by Capricorn "convention". It just so happens that rams and mountain goats have way more overlap of features.