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?

I recently rewatched Mako Mermaids and H2O. It led to some interesting conversations. In the show there haven't been mermen for thousands of years. So presumably mermaids reproduce asexually.

2 questions.

1, how did you start thinking about this?
2, wanna be friends?

I've decided merpeople are half dolphin/other appropriately-sized cetacean, as a mammal/fish hybrid is just silly. Therefore mermaids reproduce like any other marine mammal.

But they laid eggs, so the eggs must have developed inside the female.

‘Reptiles reproduce sexually.Males have one or two penises that pass sperm from their cloaca to the cloaca of a female. Fertilization occurs within the cloaca, and fertilized eggs leave the female's body through the opening in the cloaca.’

So there you have it. Tyrannosaurus just had an enormous dick. Or two.

I wonder if their dicks were bigger than their arms?

We must hope so. Those arms are pretty ridiculous, you wouldn’t like to think of Mr Enormous having a similarly disproportionate prick. ( though I suppose he would be pretty much immune from mockery).

I wonder if stegosaurus ( or at least the females ) moulted during the mating season? Stags’ antlers drop off once the fighting and fucking season is over, I often used to find them in the park as a child.

This is much more fun than shelling the peas for dinner.

Just like whales. The Right whale male has a penis over 3 meters long!
So it went flailing around a bit before finding lady T-rex’s cloaca.

You’re welcome for that image.

Why do we never get this on Walking with Dinosaurs?

Do bear in mind that centaurs are magical creatures and that magic may allow them to reproduce in ways not readily explainable by human science

I think this is my favourite MN thread in ages. I jumped ship to reddit mostly a while ago but so glad I am back for this.

Agree with PP who said the longer pregnancy would mean they're more developed. But also curious regarding the breastfeeding...

Never seen a baby Minotaur now I think about it.

They were supposed to lure sailors to their watery graves by offering sensual delights, so presumably the tail started a bit lower down than most modern pictures. Robert Graves thought so

‘Or is it of the Virgin's silver beauty,
All fish below the thighs?’

Medieval mermaids often had two tails, so maybe the ahem access was between them? That would probably suit a certain coffee chain.

Just like whales. The Right whale male has a penis over 3 meters long!

That's why he's Mr Right.

I’ve just realised that the mermaid has a navel, so she must have been born from a female uterus, not spawned like a fish
( Thanks to Sir Thomas Browne for the original observation re Adam j

Didn’t Tabascus cover this?

Off to Google now

funnily, I have been thinking of this very same question recently (while reading a book that involved centaurs but gave little exposition as to their physiology).

my hypothesis is that they would definitely be more on the horse side of being able to walk as the bottom half is horse. but they would cognitively be a baby as human brain needs development. I am also thinking the gestation will be far longer... same as horses. birth shouldn't be too difficult... head comes out first and the horsey bits follow?

what I've also been wondering is that how would one design a toilet for centaurs? as intelligent creatures... surely they don't just poo everywhere...

The picture and description of horse slippers and feathery hooves has made me come over all peculiar. Genuinely feel a bit ill

I thought Mermaids were dugongs or manatees?
with a single, horizontal tail flipper?

Some horses will always poo in the same place in their stable, I have seen someone fix up a trug which worked at a horse toilet. Sadly mine always poo like hippos (in terms of wildly spreading not liquid ) then dance in it.

I think maybe centaurs have an even longer gestation than horses to allow for this issue, maybe 18 months ?

My apologies.
It was Tobuscus with a Mini-Minotaur song.

I am sorry I cannot do any links on my phone. Recommend a watch though.

The foal hooves are so cute! It must be the layers of keratin that will harden? Same substance as hair, nails and indeed feathers.

But wouldn’t it be dangerous for the baby centaur to be born head first?
It is a long drop, and the human skull is very fragile. Or maybe the head is sort of wrapped in a sheath like the hooves?

And this re dinosaurs

Yes as others have said, the floppy newborn stage is the "4th trimester" because human babies come out much sooner than other mammals because evolutionarily this was the best way to trade off between having a larger head relative to body size as well as hips that are angled for 2-legged running - birth has to happen early as a head that is as developed as other baby-mammal-heads would be too large for a human woman's pelvis to deliver. Centaurs don't have the same trade-off because their human head isn't particularly large compared to the rest of the body so centaur mum's pelvis has no trouble accommodating a much more developed body and head, and in any case as the pelvis is shaped for 4-legged running it's easier to push out a much larger infant. So I guess centaur pregnancies are 18 months long and they come out at toddler stage physically.

Now the cognitive bit is concerning me.
imagine a baby horse trotting around through the forest with the mind of a newborn. They’ll be falling off cliffs and in ponds all over the place.

There was a horse at my last yard who always tried to poo over the stable half-door directly onto the yard, with varying levels of success, as she was just an inch too short to manage it completely. So the owner put up a chain across the door instead and only had to muck out the urine-soaked bits of the bed.