I have a question about centaur babies.

[BerthaKit]

Would the human section be all floppy and helpless like a whole human baby, while the horsey but be able to walk around like a horse baby? Or would both half’s be either humanly floppy and under developed or Horsily matured?

and how would mama centaur birth something that shape?

They’re certainly not called ‘bosoms’ as mentioned upthread….

That was meant to quote this!

the human part would be pretty much 100% lungs just to keep the whole body going

Wouldn't they have to be enormous to cope with half horse respiration what with all that galloping about? horse sized lungs in a human chest wouldn't fit, would they?

are their lungs necessarily in the upper part? And where would the heart be? What size would the heart be?

it would seem to me that storing every large organ in the horsy part would be much more feasible.

A horse has the space to store everything needed for such a large organism. The measly human half wouldn’t really change that, would it?🤔

anatomically speaking centaurs should be horses with some extra bits. And not humans with horsy bits.

The human part could be more of a transportation system (longer airways, very long esophagus etc)?🤔 maybe with some sort of stomach/digestive organs.

I personally believe that centaurs would be horses that simply have some human appendages (instead of a normal horsy head and horsy neck).

all the necessary organs would be in the horse and the human part would simply have the extras needed to keep the human alive... maybe some additional digestive bits due to the issue of „human“ diet / food consumption etc.
centaurs jaws don’t seem like they would support equine dental structures and teeth. Centaurs therefore would consume a human diet, wouldn’t they? Maybe that’s what’s in the human upper body?

or maybe the organs that remain in the human part have lost most uses/aren’t essential, not unlike an appendix.

all the necessary organs would be in the horse and the human part would simply have the extras needed to keep the human alive... maybe some additional digestive bits due to the issue of „human“ diet / food consumption etc

That suggests to me that a centaur is horse up to the shoulders and it's just the head that is human; which is not what is shown in all the pictures.

Shame the ancient Greeks didn't have cameras, that would have settled it.

Always assuming you could easily find a centaur in the wild and they weren't shy and elusive like the yeti and stood there long enough to have their picture taken before galloping off.

They not only drank from the love spring, they swam in it!

Love all the old drawings showing centaur life in great detail.
The one of the family chilling after a successful Hunt is excellent.

But yes, how do they manage to eat enough? And do they ruminate or are they in fact omnivores like humans?

And wont their arms throw them off balance when they gallopp?

@ErrolTheDragon
Yes, maybe Mermaids put on scaly «skirts» to confuse us.

No idea, but there’s plenty of footage of grown-up centaurs getting romantically paired up in Fantasia - the Pastoral Symphony bit. No babies IIRC though - shame Disney didn’t make a sequel!

CS Lewis said that centaurs had two stomachs, a man stomach requiring an enormous man breakfast ( bacon eggs etc) then a horse stomach requiring an hours grazing.
I always wondered about the grazing, they don’t really have the teeth for it. Did they pick the grass up in their hands to put it in their mouths, or did they bend down and eat from the ground, either way, very undignified.
Also how did they differentiate between stomachs?

That's just stuff Disney made up though. I bet centaurs weren't that good looking in real life.

Horses aren’t ruminants, they only have one stomach (hence why they keep dying of colic every five minutes) so having two stomachs would arguably be an upgrade for a centaur.

Imagine being a centaur vet! Although at least they could tell you which bit hurt.

@ErrolTheDragon I’ve often wondered how our eponymous hero managed to have it away with his lady friend! Perhaps the late great TP had all this in his head… (in fact I’m sure he did!)

Sorry haven't had time to RTFT but I think that talking about the human half and the horse half of a centaur isn't the right way of looking at it.

These are creatures distinct from both humanity and horsedom, and therefore develop completely differently, far advanced from the helpless baby humans we produce.
Plus they're a bit magic.

Yeah, but they've got 6 limbs to get all tangled up together!

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain , No! And there was I thinking Fantasia was real - even down to all the Pegasuses (flying horses), inc. the cute little baby one!
I shall have to go away and have a good cry now.

I'm so sorry.....😧

A minor detail compared to the advanced biology, chemistry and physics required to metamorphose an ordinary fire breathing dragon into a rocket-propelled one, surely? And size never bothered Casanunder...

@ErrolTheDragon ah good point. Haha no that’s true! The epitome of size isn’t everything 😅

GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal always good to encounter a Pratchett fan (I know there are several on MN). Apart from the hay, it sounds like me!

I hadn't thought about lungs and udders...now I have, reading this thread.

Another point - they have six limbs - are they not insects?

I've been worrying that they are insects for years.

As a Sagittarius I'm not at all sure about being repped by an insect although obviously not as awful as being a Scorpio.

I think modern centaurs would sort the grazing problem with a lot of wheatgrass smoothies and porridge/flapjacks.

They would laugh at us for thinking they still have to go out grazing.

I think the entire human part is digestive system and all the other organs are in the horse part.

A lot of depictions of centaurs show that they have heavy jaws, obviously they've got stonking great big molars.

Really?!
Hehehe, I thought they were like cows.

Well, that’s lucky 😄

Now I have a human/cow type centaur image stuck in my Brain and somehow that is odder than a centaur