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Birvan β Early Centaur WIP
Published: 2014-04-16 21:26:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 2184; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 8
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Description
I tried to have a potential ancestor for the centaurs ready for Draw a Centaur Day, but my mind is completely elsewhere lately...I might get around to finish this, but no promises
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Comments: 27
One thing I've always sorta wondered - they must have dual sets of lungs in order to get oxygen to a body that large, but they don't have noses the size of horses... does that mean they'd regularly have to run with their mouth open to get all the air they'd need? These things I wonder...
Also, I love her haircut. X3
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Not necessarily. The 1st section of the torso can easily be devoted to the breathing system alone and the 2nd to the rest of the organs
As for the nose it's not necessary for the nostrils to be large to take large intakes of oxygen. You can also use a very fast breathing and heart rate to achieve that result (birds are a perfect example)
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Ah, good point to both of those! I sometimes wonder what centaurs eat, if they can get hay and grass through their human mouth or whether they have to eat human food at an equine scale. Or maybe they have two digestive systems for the two diets, and the tubes meet up somewhere near the end. Follow up question: Can a centaur vomit?
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Depends on the type of design you use. Mine is not a mix of human and horse features, but their own evolutionary line
The early centaurs are actually very small, fast animals that live among bushes and grassland. Their diet is mainly based on fruits and small insects, since they burn a lot of energy
Later evolutions will develop a more efficient digestive system and be able to absorb more nutrients from poorer sources, like leaves (though one will branch out and become fully carnivorous)
As for vomiting I don't know how they would deal with purging themselves from harmful substances. Considering their evolutionary key is their speed, and thus eating too much at once or caught vomiting would leave them open to predation, they probably do like rats do, sample a very small quantity and if the body reacts badly they will avoid eating that substance for the rest of their lives
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A fully carnivorous centaur? What are they like?
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Babies often are x3
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finally someone who understands that centaurs look better when they're in total equine forms 
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I feel I agree with you
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yay more people agree . u .Β
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I agree with the human torso simply pasted onto the horse's body often looks rather unnatural, but I'm not against more human looking taurs
The way I'm trying to do is understand how a centaur might have evolved and what implications that might have in its anatomy and behavior
This one in particular is a good example on why the first set of limbs became arms, why the "1st torso" started to become more vertical and why the muzzle started to become shorter
They're prey animals, so running became one of their primary keys for survival. But being able to carry things with their first set of limbs is also an advantage, reason why their other limbs evolved hoofs, while these remained as paws
Having the front of the body raised helps to achieve better speed, but it also allows for better spotting of any sign of danger. Especially when the species is rather small and lives among the tall vegetation
As for the muzzle, since the arms became the primary way to grab and manipulate food, they don't need a long snout in order to reach food. They still have large jaws for chewing however, and large nostrils for better air intakeΒ
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wow you thought this out very carefully in order to keep them looking the way they do 
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I try. To me it works a lot better than just slapping 2 completely different species together and try to figure out how they work from here > >
I have an evolutionary chart that ties most hexaped creatures together
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yeah it makes more sense, its better when a creature has more cohesive features to make it feel more plausible and realistic
you do? do you still have it?
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Here it isΒ birvan.deviantart.com/art/Hexaβ¦
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ahhh i remember this old thing, i remember i used to look at this one for ideas and inspiration on possible evolutionary paths for my creatures 
(don't worry, i did my best to make sure i didn't copy your ideas, i treat originality with the utmost respect
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Thanks, a lot of people don't understand the difference between being inspired by something and blatantly copying something > >
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yeah, tell me about it :/Β
but thanks to artists like you, i learned that if you find all the clues and try as hard as you can, you can find your own original path to explaining how fictional creatures came to be, as opposed to "it's here, don't ask why" which most fantasy movies do, you should continue working on yours as well, i wanna see how they come out more
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I admit it was a bit accidental, but yes, NEVER settle for the "we always did it this way" excuse. While we may not all agree with some end results, exploring new hypothesis and ideas is always healthy
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of course it is! and its what pushes us to be more original and innovative! thats what people really need in this world, and we can give it to them!
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Another way to explain human/animal hybrids is that they mimic humans to avoid getting killed by humans.
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Some may do that, most likely shapeshifters, but that's not really the case with (my) taurs. During this stage of development humans weren't around either
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I certainly hope you do.Β
To tell you the truth, much prefer these to the common centaur design XD
Also the picture is quite adorableΒ
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I have lots of ideas regarding to these guys. Just wish my artistic drive agreed with it
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I can imagine what thats like u_u
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