Clearing out some old links I'd noted, here's some good reading for game designers (or just detail-happy GMs) wanting to give good, hard biology a friendly nod:

The Biology of B-Movie Monsters

http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/2/21701757/

Wow, this is a heck of an article by Michael C. LaBarbera, professor in Organismal Biology & Anatomy at the University of Chicago. It's a layman-friendly grand tour of how size and scaling work in reality, and what that means for B-movie creatures – and by extension, game-table monsters. Scaling of area vs mass and its relevant effects on cooling, terminal velocity, metabolism, and so on; mass and falling damage; mechanical difficulties posed by huge size; and much more – it's all there.

I would have liked to hear the speech by the inimitable Steven Vogel on "Power from the People: Life When Muscle Was Our Main Motor", an overview of how biomechanics shaped the lives and work of our ancestors. The article at http://scienceblogs.com/principles/2007/02/archeological_biomechanics.ph... provides some interesting fodder for the dilettante game designer, though it's unfortunately brief.