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Original poster

I have a question about centaur babies.

348 replies

BerthaKit · 04/08/2023 12:24

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?

OP posts:
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17
Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 04/08/2023 17:56

FoxClocks · 04/08/2023 17:38

Coming back to centaurs it seems like they have 2 stomachs a human one, and a horse one - so what do they eat?

Bad children🫢

sueelleker · 04/08/2023 18:12

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 04/08/2023 17:03

How did centaurs come about in the first place, though? were they a really out there branch of hominids? homo half horse, as it were.

Show quote history

According to Piers Anthony, in his Xanth series, they started when a horse and a human drank from a Love Spring.

Gothambutnotahamster · 04/08/2023 18:22

Tidsleytiddy · 04/08/2023 12:25

I’ll have a pint of whatever you’re on

Grin
ErrolTheDragon · 04/08/2023 18:23

turbonerd · 04/08/2023 16:33

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen

My apologies, I meant LIKE manatees.

And they can’t be scaly, I think that is just someone’s imagination going riot.

Mermaids will be smooth like - well, like manatees.

I love manatees.

Maybe mermaids are modest and don't go around naked so they clothe their lower half in fish skin as that's what they've got available?

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 04/08/2023 18:25

ChatGPT sits firmly on the fence in this discussion, emphasising that centaurs are mythical so it is up to the imagination of the fiction-writer to decide how developed centaur babies would be.

Now I'm off to ask it how T-Rex mated ...

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 04/08/2023 18:29

Oh, apparently we don't know how T-Rex reproduced (other than it involved eggs) because "specifics of dinosaur reproductive behavior can only be inferred from the available evidence, and our understanding may be refined or updated as new discoveries are made in the future. Additionally, since we cannot directly observe dinosaur behavior, some aspects of their reproduction may remain uncertain or subject to ongoing scientific debate."

ChatGPT is most definitely sitting on the fence for me this evening. Maybe I'll ask it to write some poetry instead, perhaps it's in a creative mood.

swimminginthesun · 04/08/2023 18:47

WitcheryDivine · 04/08/2023 16:56

Hang on hang on - are people implying that centaurs are born from a horse parent and a human parent? I had always thought their parents would be centaurs going back to time immemorial. Also very wise and clever so presumably quite modern medically and have this whole baby/foal birth thing DOWN.

I’ve just been pondering this too. Are they half human half horse, or are they a completely separate species? If you cross a horse and a donkey you get a mule or a hinny (depending which parent was male and which female). They are almost always sterile. So maybe centaurs are the same and can’t breed among themselves but always come from one horse and one human.

swimminginthesun · 04/08/2023 18:48

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 04/08/2023 15:31

@swimminginthesun

« Centaurs don’t have human reproductive systems (the human part stops just below the navel) and so the baby would be born from the horse part. «

Are you sure? Because the battle between the Centaurs and the Lapiths, as shown on the famous sculpture, was caused by the Centaurs trying to rape the female human guests at a wedding. So one has to hope that they were ‘men’ because the alternative is…..mind boggling.

Well I haven’t studied them but that’s what it looks like in pictures.

swimminginthesun · 04/08/2023 18:53

ImNotReallySpartacus · 04/08/2023 17:38

Does anyone know the life expectancy of a centaur? I'm assuming it is similar to either the human or equine life expectancy. I'd hate to think the human part would be stuck on top of a dead horse for years.

It’s not two separate creatures spliced together, it’s one being. Only one brain. So when it dies it dies. Being a magical creature I’d guess they live a long long time.

FoxClocks · 04/08/2023 19:04

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · Today 17:56
FoxClocks · Today 17:38

Coming back to centaurs it seems like they have 2 stomachs a human one, and a horse one - so what do they eat?

Bad children🫢

No, no I'm sure Centaurs are gentle influenced by their horsey half and are probably Vegan (apart from the raping party guests obviously)

BigMandsTattooPortfolio · 04/08/2023 19:13

According to this they breast feed and eat game:

EnthENd · 04/08/2023 19:15

Were there baby centaurs? They were hybrids themselves - human father, nymph mother; or by other stories human paternal grandfather, nymph paternal grandmother, horse mother. Like many hybrids, centaurs might not be able to reproduce themselves.

ErrolTheDragon · 04/08/2023 19:16

BigMandsTattooPortfolio · 04/08/2023 19:13

According to this they breast feed and eat game:

From both the human and equine nipples. At least, I hope that's what that shows.

swimminginthesun · 04/08/2023 19:17

EnthENd · 04/08/2023 19:15

Were there baby centaurs? They were hybrids themselves - human father, nymph mother; or by other stories human paternal grandfather, nymph paternal grandmother, horse mother. Like many hybrids, centaurs might not be able to reproduce themselves.

But they still would have been babies once. The nymph or horse mother wouldn’t have birthed an adult centaur.

CurlewKate · 04/08/2023 19:19

Presumably unicorns are born without horns? Like human babies ant teeth? Because otherwise....😮

CurlewKate · 04/08/2023 19:21

I'm way behind-as usual!

swimminginthesun · 04/08/2023 19:22

CurlewKate · 04/08/2023 19:19

Presumably unicorns are born without horns? Like human babies ant teeth? Because otherwise....😮

Covered upthread. General consensus was that they are born with little nubs that grow into horns.

tt9 · 04/08/2023 19:58

sueelleker · 04/08/2023 18:12

According to Piers Anthony, in his Xanth series, they started when a horse and a human drank from a Love Spring.

Show quote history

@sueelleker drank from a "love spring"? is that a euphemism? because I'm using it from now on...

Pinkbakerscap · 04/08/2023 20:05

CantFindTheBeat · 04/08/2023 13:50

No.

Mermaids give birth to eggs, like frogspawn, that need to be put in ponds to grow.

Then arms and tails sprout like tadpoles as they develop.

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I thought they had babies by sea section 😝.

WitcheryDivine · 04/08/2023 20:06

This is the Best Thread Ever

DuesToTheDirt · 04/08/2023 20:14

YetAnotherSpartacus · 04/08/2023 13:24

I've never actually seen a representation of a female centaur.

I was thinking the same. Wikipedia tells me, "The centaurs were usually said to have been born of Ixion and Nephele," and also, "Another tribe of centaurs was said to have lived on Cyprus. According to Nonnus, they were fathered by Zeus, who, in frustration after Aphrodite had eluded him, spilled his seed on the ground of that land." So maybe there are no centaur parents, and all could be male.

The same article states that Lucreius got there before you lot in analysing their potential growth rates: "He states that at the age of three years, horses are in the prime of their life while humans at the same age are still little more than babies, making hybrid animals impossible."

Ixion - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ixion

TooBigForMyBoots · 04/08/2023 20:29

ErrolTheDragon · 04/08/2023 15:16

For once the question about whether to use reins on your mobile small offspring seems uncontentious.

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GrinGrinGrin

StBrides · 04/08/2023 20:35

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 04/08/2023 17:17

So....when Zeus seduced Leda was he swan sized or man sized? he'd have to be man sized, wouldn't he? or at the least a bloody big swan.

Man sized, I think...Still not sure how he managed to seduce her!

StBrides · 04/08/2023 20:36

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 04/08/2023 16:43

Steve Brusatte (palaeantologist currently teaching at Edinburgh) would agree. The arms weren't actually much use, he thinks that the TRex hunted in packs - the juveniles hunted down and held the prey because theire arms were stronger and the mature T Rex dispatched it.

TRex in packs - how much of a nightmare is that for a plant eating dino.

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Well, that is terrifying.

Merapi · 04/08/2023 20:38

Every day's a school day on MN.