A lot of mythical animals have some utterly screwed up anatomy. The spine at the bottom of the shirt here is simultaneously neck and waist. Is there a pelvis there, or not?
Centaurs, Angels, Demons, Pegasus, etc all have six limbs, whereas all existing vertebrates have only four (except those who once had them, but lost them as with snakes and whales). Each shoulder on the flying examples needs to accommodate two limbs.
All sorts of things that couldn't happen with the way evolution turned out on earth. But then, they're mythical so the rules don't apply.
Well, personally I always liked the wing model where the wings are placed a bit above the hip. The would allow for a secondary hip like structure and would not mess up the human-like appearance of the being too much if they were loose shirts, which might be neeed to give the wings room to move.
I do think it is a bit unsportsman like. She is already standing up.
Actually, if it's a sprint, the horse may not win. Horses are built for endurance, not sudden speed. It takes them a little bit to sort their legs out from a standing start.
KendraKirai said: Actually, if it's a sprint, the horse may not win. Horses are built for endurance, not sudden speed. It takes them a little bit to sort their legs out from a standing start.
Some breeds yes, others no. Quarter horses are bred for agility and acceleration and would likely hold their own in a sprint.
But, as it has been said, that does not take into account the time it takes to accelerate. Those speeds are always done so that the average top speed is found, as in once it has gotten up to speed, not including the time it actually takes to run 100m from rest.
Horse 220 yard (201m) world record is 11.62. Human 100m is 9.58... So unless that horse has such extreme acceleration that the last half of those 200m go by in 2.04 seconds...
Also ithink it would be possible for a secondary rib cage. The human part would probably contain a pair of kidneys, a primary liver, and a first stomach like with a cow. the rest of the important organs would be in the larger horse cavity.
DragonSolomon said: Also ithink it would be possible for a secondary rib cage. The human part would probably contain a pair of kidneys, a primary liver, and a first stomach like with a cow. the rest of the important organs would be in the larger horse cavity.
That's fine for the organs and in fact makes them more protected (you have a ribcage over your intestines), but you still run into the same problem of the spinal chord having to be held at what amounts to more or less a 90 degree angle perpetually, where the two torsos connect. here are some animals that can do that temporarily (like some snakes) but to my knowedge nothing can keep their spinal cord in that postion all the time.
oh and why would thier have to multiple stomachs. the centaur has a human mouth and human dentition, so she presumably eats human food. most of those extra stomachs in ruminants are there so they can digest cellulose and get food endergy from things as low in calorie value as grass and leaves. I supect she has only one stomach though likely a very large one, plus maybe and enlarge cecum (the thing our appendix used to be) like rabbits have. Oh an I lOVE to know if those bike shorts have a hole in the back or if she has to take them off to go to the bathroom (horses ain't great at "holding it") lest just say that I don't think I like to be running BEHIND her either.
Noppera-bo said: That's fine for the organs and in fact makes them more protected (you have a ribcage over your intestines), but you still run into the same problem of the spinal chord having to be held at what amounts to more or less a 90 degree angle perpetually, where the two torsos connect. here are some animals that can do that temporarily (like some snakes) but to my knowedge nothing can keep their spinal cord in that postion all the time.
um... Giraffes kinda do that. It's not like they're holding up a torso, but I imagine that their neck is pretty darn heavy!
tai-tai said: um... Giraffes kinda do that. It's not like they're holding up a torso, but I imagine that their neck is pretty darn heavy!
actually, giraffes' necks aren't as heavy of at least as hard to support as they look. Giraffes have seven vertebrae in the part of thier spine the runs through the neck, same as us, those vertebrae are just really really long. those superlong vertebrae act as an very good weight distribution system so the net weight isn't all that great. the bottom one also facilitates the spinal cord making a gentle curve, rather than an abrupt angle; a giraffe's spine curves no more extremely than any other four footed animal. the centaur interface couldn't do that; the part of the spine that runs behind the ribcage is pretty immobile to hold the ribcage in place it move a little when you breathe but not much otherwise. and since we'd be goin directly from one rib cage to the other there woud be no inter vertebrae to make a cruve, the spinal cord really would need to make a right angle and hold it which wouln't work
It all depends on distance: if it's anything over 15 miles or so, a properly trained human will beat out nearly anything. The only wild animals that get close are wolves, which is why they were the first animals domesticated.
Noppera_Bo said: actually, giraffes' necks aren't as heavy of at least as hard to support as they look. Giraffes have seven vertebrae in the part of thier spine the runs through the neck, same as us, those vertebrae are just really really long. those superlong vertebrae act as an very good weight distribution system so the net weight isn't all that great. the bottom one also facilitates the spinal cord making a gentle curve, rather than an abrupt angle; a giraffe's spine curves no more extremely than any other four footed animal. the centaur interface couldn't do that; the part of the spine that runs behind the ribcage is pretty immobile to hold the ribcage in place it move a little when you breathe but not much otherwise. and since we'd be goin directly from one rib cage to the other there woud be no inter vertebrae to make a cruve, the spinal cord really would need to make a right angle and hold it which wouln't work
that logic can also apply to how the human body portion works for a centaur
concerning the lower organs, assuming she reproduces like a human, then the extra room can be considered to accomodate the now-larger baby and associated organs. Her torso might also be lighter in this respect, since it's probably less dense than a normal human torso (most of the organs having been relocated to the horse body). Plus, from here it looks like she has some muscles around the "horse-neck and Human ab" area, probably to support the spine.
Horse diet or human diet? Her horsey biology is going to want to eat 20 pounds of food at a constant rate over the course of a day, and this is going to be on top of a human brain's not-inconsiderable energy requirements (something like 20% of your total energy intake)? That's a seriously energy-guzzling animal.
Also, where do the humie bits go when the horsey bits lie down to sleep?
Sorry for not being philosophical on this, but every time I look at this image, I can't help, but to laugh when I imagine the starting pistol going off and someone getting a horse kick to the face.
Her classmates are whining now; they'll be singing a different tune when the Gymnastics portion of P.E. comes up. The uneven parallel bars are gonna be a killer for her...
I believe someone up there mentioned Varley's Titanides. They're basically strong and agile centaurs. Though their natural environment has a quarter gee, they were created to be able to withstand Earth's gravity. I think somewhere in the novels mentioned that they were able to turn their torso and head so that they could look 180˚ behind them.
Titanides have a cartilaginous spine to allow for the flexibility, though I don't know enough biology to know if that's feasible.
For the bone structure, I can -sort of- imagine a combined pelvis/shoulder structure, that'd basically split the spine into an upper and lower spine. Vaguely a humanlike pelvis placed right on top (or even inside?) of the horse front-leg construction. Hm. Though I'd imagine that'd require some pretty creative ligament setup. And it'd either require a very light upper body, or larger front leg than hind leg musculature to compensate for the different weight distribution?
Nothing that'd evolve naturally at all, but something I could see as somewhat feasible if one assumes a god/wizard/whatever did it.
There are more problems that apparently noone else thought of, though:
Blood Pressure: I doubt a normal horse-heart is enough to supply a head that high up in relation to the body with blood properly, much less one as energy hungry as a human's. giraffes solve their problem by having a fucking enormous(!) heart, and a complex valve system in their necks that both prevents backflow and overpressure when lowering their heads. I'm not sure how that'd work for a centaur. Two hearts?
Air/Oxygen intake: Horses have nostrils larger than a human's for a good reason. I honestly doubt you can get enough air quickly enough through a human's nose to fuel the oxygen requirements of a centaur unless you have magically super-effective lungs somehow. At best, a cold would spell instant death to them. Not to mention the decidedly long windpipe structure that'd go through the human-ish pelvis at a pretty awkward angle. That is, assuming the lungs are in the horse body, but putting them into the human body wouldn't work due to size constraints. A novel I vaguely recall reading gave the centaurs a gill-like structure on the sides of the human torso to facilitate massive air intake, but those looked decidedly not-human-at-all. Even with horse lungs and the windpipe/nostril problem solved somehow, there's still the problem of fueling a human-ish brain with enough oxygen all the way up there quickly enough, which sorta ties in.
Food: The food intake situation (a grown horse eating anywhere between 15-24lbs of food a day), without needing to feed a massively energy-hungry human brain, has been mentioned above. There's more to it, though. A horse drinks about 10-12 us-gallons of water a day. It primarily eats grass, and has a digestive tract designed around this. It requires slow, constant nutrient intake due to this as well. Horses also cannot vomit as-is, and thus digestive issues are a massive health hazard to them. That human esophagus up there is not going to make that easier.
Now, a centaur clearly doesn't have the ability to eat grass (human upper body + teeth), so what -do- they even eat naturally? I could see artificial foods, high calorie bars, supplements, whatever made for them, but in a natural environment, what would they eat? Are they like them sparkly ponies and pick apples from trees all day? Do they hunt, using tools like human's would? Using spears and such? Then they'd require a completely different digestive system. Maybe they're more like behooved lions or something.
Nerves: I really don't know much about this one, but a human's nerve setup is already plenty complex. Assuming a human-like setup, I'd imagine the additional spinal nerves that'd be needed to be relatively significant. Any biology major here that could shed some light here?
Although the humans in this picture may not realize it, they would have an advantage in the racing conditions shown. The amount of friction needed to overcome inertia rises as the mass rises. This is why horses race on a race track with lots of soft dirt to dig their hooves into and not on a flat track. For an idea of what it would be like, watch a cat or dog try to run around in a house with smooth floors. Even if the horse girl was wearing rubber shoes, the surface friction in comparison with her body weight would be much less than that of the human girls.
Geez, you guys are over analyzing this picture like hell! So many pictures of centaurs and you guys ended up debating here! While on the subject; I read in one of the Disc World books Rincewind mentioned that, and I paraphrase, "only on a short distant can you outrun a horse."
montesat said: While on the subject; I read in one of the Disc World books Rincewind mentioned that, and I paraphrase, "only on a short distant can you outrun a horse."
Hmm, yes, perhaps this should have been in the Speculation Fuel pool much earlier. Why would a centaur be allowed to compete on equal terms with a human?
First, the "who would win ?" question. If it's a 100m sprint, an horse can do times close to 5 sec. Usain Bolt made it in 9.58 sec. At 200m, horse 11.49, Mr Bolt 19.19. At 400m, horse 20.57 sec, Michael Johnson 43.18. At 2000m, horse 1 min 59 sec, Hicham El Guerrouj 4 min 44 sec
"How does her spine works ?" Maybe she has a special joint linking her upper part to the lower part. Her back muscles may be well developped too.
"How much food she eats ? How her stomach(s) work ?" Well, she is seen eating a carrot. So she can eats carrots and other food "on the go". She could possibly have one big stomach in her lower part. Maybe she eats human things, but in very large quantity. Try to imagine your stomach but much bigger. You could eat so much.
There's actually a Manga called セントールの悩み (A Centaur's Worries） where the idea is explored.
Inbetween stories there's some lore about how evolution lead to centaurs and other perculiar humanoids (from our point of view). The main idea was that six-limbed animals survived while four-armed ones didn't, and the middle set of arms evolved into the Centaur's front legs, the wings of some of the other races, or the middle flippers of mermaid-esque humans.
There was a lot of kanji so I didn't understand a lot of it, but if it's translated somewhere might be worth looking up, for anyone who wants some further reading.
The main idea was that six-limbed animals survived while four-armed ones didn't, and the middle set of arms evolved into the Centaur's front legs, the wings of some of the other races, or the middle flippers of mermaid-esque humans.
That 6-limb evolution idea was also explored in Avatar, where almost everything is a hexaped of sorts except perhaps glaringly, the humanoids.
It was bad enough to have toppled from the Olympic heights to make my living competing with animals. But the competition wasn't even fair. No man could beat a race horse, not even for 100 yards. The secret is, first, get a thoroughbred horse because they are the most nervous animals on earth. Then get the biggest gun you can find and make sure the starter fires that big gun right by the nervous thoroughbred's ear.
