Centaur Anatomy

[Athena]

So I found some more useful stuff
This time it's something about centaur anatomy and ways how to draw what on a centaur I found on Deviantart.
I wasn't sure where to post this thread...thought I'd post it here because the description said something about mythology and centaurs are greek mythology^^
Also very minor adult stuff,sideboob picture on the anatomy example female centaur.

Centaur Anatomy 101: Proportions by *phantom-inker on deviantART
Centaur Anatomy 102: Parts of the Body by *phantom-inker on deviantART
Centaur Anatomy 103: Artist's Joints by *phantom-inker on deviantART
Centaur Anatomy 201: Leg Bones by *phantom-inker on deviantART
Centaur Anatomy 202: Overall Skeletal Structure by *phantom-inker on deviantART

 

[Ireth]

Cool stuff. ^^ Makes me wonder how their respiratory and circulatory systems would work... two ribcages imply two sets of lungs, two hearts, etc. How would they breathe like that?

 

[Athena]

Well I can imagine the hearts just beat at the same time and they automatically breathe with both sets of lungs.I mean...it's gotta be something along those lines to allow them to actually run as fast and as far as horses.

 

[Jessquoi]

I can imagine two hearts would be useful to pump blood more efficiently around such a large body, but two set of lungs? The air would have to travel from the head all the way down a pipe, through the human torso and into the horse body. That seems a little inefficient to me, but then maybe a centaur really would need that much air. Maybe there would be only one digestive system in the horse body to make room for other pathways in the human torso.

 

[Valentinator]

The problem with centaurs is that a human mouth and nostrils are not big enough to provide an adequate oxygen supply for the body that big. Centaurs must either breathe very intensively or have additional blowholes somewhere else.

Another problem is a digestive system. Human part ends just where horse one starts.

I am just saying that you can't make an anatomically correct organism by simply combining anatomies of two other organisms. The arrangement of organs must be completely different.

 

[Motley]

Perhaps the upper lungs are just used to pump air down to the lower lungs.

Thanks for these resources. Very useful and interesting.

 

[skip.knox]

I loved the shopped picture of the rifle-bearing centaur. Let's hear it for the New Cavalry!

But the picture is also a reply to Valentinator. I agree with your points about biological reality. But when I saw that photo, I was instantly caught up. It was an unexpected image that immediately caused me to think about possibilities, without tripping over the impossibilities. Which is exactly what fantasy fiction is supposed to do.

I freely admit that what doesn't bother me may bother others. We all have our own areas of expertise and woe to the writer who wanders into them. Typographers famously get angry at movies that have a wrong font on a storefront sign. Perhaps zoology is a hot button for Valentinator, in which case centaurs are never going to sell there. But for this reader, who stayed well away from biology in college and is a better man for it, that centaur was wicked awesome!

 

[SeverinR]

I smiled at the artist using a kentauride* rather then a centaur* for the base of his illustration.
I guess upper mare orb shadows are better then lower shadow stallion parts.

*Chicken/rooster thing. (bull/cow)

Better check her frog. (no its not sexual)

I think my centaur/Kentaurides won't have human belly buttons, but horse. The nutrients needed to keep it alive would need to be horse umbilical not human, unless of course there would be two.

 

[SeverinR]

I would offer, many horse problems would be common in Centaurs.
I would tend to believe they would be high fiber omnivoure if not all vegitarian.

Colic would still be a problem, avoiding colic=high fiber(grass), almost constant movement of body (grazing), enough water to keep everything wet.
broken leg bones would be cripppling, even a slow lingering death, since they couldn't walk(colic) other hooves would break down, since they would support the body 100% of the time, and preditors would get an easy meal unless the herd protected the injured.
If you go low int. centaurs, they would behaive more like horses and less like humans.
If high int, they would act more like large humans then horses, but instincts would still be similar.
I wrote of a Kentauride that a human wallked up behind, and she kicked him without warning, she was a shaman, but someone gets close to their ass without warning, they have to react to defend themselves.