Animation best practices on characters sharing skeleton question.

Hey there, I’m not sure if this has been covered before, but I can’t find it. I am curious as to the best practices on animating different characters sharing a skeleton. Let’s say I have a base zombie skeleton and a hulking zombie rig using the “same” skeleton, but bones are moved to accommodate big guys anatomy. If I animate using the hulking zombie rig, do I then need to copy that animation onto the “base” rig? or can I use the animation exported from the larger rig and will it be able to be shared as well? Basically, does all animation need to be exported off of the “base” rig? Or can animation be used from different rig exports? thanks!

no one? really? Am I the only one with this question?