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b-lu3print · 3 years ago

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Centaurs - A Complete Anatomical Guide by someone who is way too curious about this topic

Alright blessed people, this is a post for all you folk who have forever been irritated by the fact the centaurs don’t make sense.

How in the world does it make sense to have two torsos and six sets of limbs? Are they insect, are they mammal? Where is the line between the human anatomy and the horse? How do their two systems reconcile???

Well my friends, I’ve figured it out! Stayed up all night pondering the anatomy of centaurs, and here it is.

I’ll break this down into the different body systems similar to how you might find in an anatomy text book.

Nervous System

There isn’t much to say about this since centaurs only have one brain. The brain would be anatomically identical to a human’s brain.

This brain connects to their spinal cord which runs through both of their backs, making it very long. It would likely have a special kind of joint with extra protective cushioning right at the base of their “human” torso to allow for extra movement while still protecting the spine from damage.

Aside from that the way that the nerves and brain work together would likely be the same as it would be in a horse or human, complete with instinctive reflexes.

Circulatory and Respiratory Systems

I am putting these two systems together because, like in most animals, they are very closely related.

To begin with, centaurs, having two torsos, would indeed have two hearts and two sets of lungs. How would this work, you ask? Let me explain.

First, let’s take a look at what would happen if they only had one of each organ.

I started this particular train of thought imagining that they only had a human heart. A human heart always exists in size relative to the size of the body it is in. This ensures that it can supply enough blood to the body without overworking itself. However, in a centaur, the human heart would likely only be sized to fit the human torso. Thus, only having a human heart to supply both a human torso and a horse body - which alone is likely twice the area the heart would be able to power - would cause an insanely high blood pressure which would kill a centaur very quickly. This is especially true considering that centaurs are likely a very active nomadic race.

So, just a human heart? Unrealistic. The same logic exist with only having a set of human lungs. It wouldn’t be enough to power their entire body.

Now what about just having a horse heart with lungs? While these would be more likely have the power to sustain a body of that size, you still have the issue of gravity.

If we look at most animals who only have one set of lungs and a heart, we see that the placement of these organs minimize the need to fight against gravity, with the strongest blood pressure being in the neck to push blood up to the brain. This usually means that these organs are situated closer to the center of the body, but closer to the head.

For centaurs, if they only had a horse heart and lungs, would have to use insane amounts of pressure to push blood through the “human” torso. This would likely result in a chronic oxygen deficiency in the brain, and wearing down of the blood vessels, eventually resulting in death.

Again, only having one set of a heart and lungs, regardless of which, is unrealistic. So how would it work to have both?

For this next bit, with having two sets of these organs, I’ll be referring to them as the primary heart/lungs and the secondary heart/lungs. The primary set is found in the “human” torso, with the secondary in the “horse”. They are located in the same positions as would be found in humans and horses respectively. When at rest, the primary heart and lungs supply most of the oxygen and blood to the rest of the body. During more strenuous activity, the secondary heart and lungs kick into full gear.

To resolve the issue of a blood pressure that is too intense, both hearts actually work in tandem with each other. The primary heart takes the oxygen from the primary lungs and cycles it through the “human” torso, while still sending a large portion of blood to the secondary heart. The secondary heart then cycles that blood through the rest of the body.

Now to understand how both lungs work, it is important to first understand how the “human” torso fits onto the “horse” body. A regular human torso would be too thin to fit realistically onto the shoulders of a horse. Therefore, a centaur’s “human” torso would be much broader than that of a regular human. This distinction allows for the primary lungs to be bigger than a human’s would be. This gives centaurs a greater total lung capacity (the total amount of air that the lungs can hold). A greater lung capacity makes it less likely that centaurs would experience oxygen deficiency when at rest or when doing daily activities the don’t require a lot of effort. It also prevents the lungs from needed to overwork to supply the needed amount of oxygen.

Unlike the hearts, the secondary set of lungs, while still connected to the primary ones, are not active when the body is at rest. I realized that if these were active continuously, even at a very low level, it would likely use up more energy that it would be able to provide.

Thus the secondary lungs would only function when the rest of the body is doing strenuous activity (running, fighting, etc.). Otherwise, these lungs would be closed off from the rest of the primary lungs to reduce the amount of dead space throughout the respiratory system. They would be closed off at the junction where the secondary set of bronchi connect to the primary ones. At the opening, there would be an organ similar to the epiglottis that can open and close as needed. All of this would be set up to optimize and maximize the use of oxygen.

Now, when centaurs are being active that is when both sets of hearts and lungs function at full capacity. When one is more active, the body requires more oxygen. This need for more oxygen would signal for the secondary lungs to open and start working. As centaurs only have one nose/mouth the diaphragm in the “horse” body would have to be stronger in order to make up for the extra distance that the air has to travel before it reaches the secondary lungs.

In addition, when being active the secondary heart no longer has to rely solely on the oxygenated blood from the primary heart as it can access oxygen from the secondary lungs. Thus, in these situations the two systems tend to function separately from each other to meet the needs of the body. As the body returns to a state of rest, these two systems start to go back to working together; the secondary lungs cease function and the secondary heart goes back to cycling the blood it receives from the primary.

Digestive System

The digestive system is perhaps the most controversial and confusing part of considering how a centaur would work, secondary to the circulatory and respiratory systems. With an entire “human” torso and and entire “horse” torso, there is space enough for them to have two complete digestive systems. So would they?

Absolutely tf not.

There is not a single logical reason that any being would need two complete digestive systems. Which means, centaurs would probably either have a very long esophagus that leads to a digestive system in the “horse”, or a very long intestine/rectum leading from a digestive system in the “human”, right?

While those are both possible, neither are particularly likely. What is more likely, is that both torsos share a single digestive system between them that is simply more spread out than either one would be on its own.

Now, when trying to figure out how this digestive system would work, we have to consider the differences between a human digestive system and that of a horse. The biggest difference, is that humans are omnivores while horses are herbivores, thus their digestive systems are set up to break down different types of foods. Centaurs are likely, widely vegetarian, but it is possible that they eat meat occasionally as well.

To reconcile this, it would make the most sense for centaurs to have both a human-like stomach and a horse-like stomach. The human-like stomach would be found in the “human” torso and would contain the enzymes to break down meat and other such food products. It would also have gastric acid with a lower pH which would help it to break down tougher substances. This makes it easier for these substances to pass through the body to the horse-like stomach.

On average, the pH of human stomach acid is lower than the stomach acid of a horse, so it would also make sense for centaurs to have a thicker lining to their stomachs to prevent from things like ulcers.

Aside from the stomach, the rest of the digestive system would follow the same pattern as that of a horse.

Reproductive System

The reproductive system of a centaur is fairly self-explanatory. Since the “human” torso doesn’t necessarily have the reproductive organs of a human, it is safe to assume that centaurs would reproduce the same way that horses do.

This would also mean that they would feed their young the same way that horses do. This leads to one of my favorite facts about centaurs which is that they would not need, and therefore would not have nipples. The females would also not have breasts, making it more difficult to distinguish between male and female centaurs at a glance.

Musculoskeletal System

The musculoskeletal system is one that I save for later because it requires a good amount of the previous information to understand.

The first thing to know about a centaur’s musculoskeletal system is that for most of their body it is the same as a human’s or horse’s respectively. The biggest difference is at the spot where the “human” part and “horse” part meet.

I have already mentioned that the spine would have a kind of joint that allows them to move more at that junction where “human” meets “horse”. Surrounding this joint are also various muscle groups that provides the power behind all that movement. At this spot, centaurs would move very similarly to the way a horse’s neck would.

This is vital to centaurs for a few different reasons. The first is birthing. Due to the fact that centaurs give birth the same way horses do, the babies would have to be born in the same position. Below is a picture of the position horses are in when they are born:

Here you can see how the horse’s head lays against their legs. Centaur young would be in a similar position, with their “human” arms pulled against their chest and their “human” torso laying against their front legs.

This means that they would need the muscle and the mobility to lean all the way forwards like this, as well as the muscle to return back into an upright position after birth.

The second reason is for moving from a laying to a standing position. When horses go from laying to standing, they push up on their front legs first then their back legs. Below is a picture.

It is reasonable to assume that centaurs would stand up in a similar fashion. However, centaurs are very front heavy due to their “human torsos”, so instead of putting their heads forward like you can see this horse doing, they would lean back to keep their balance. This also requires a different configuration of muscles to allow them to do that.

In general, the junction between “human” and “horse” on a centaur has to be very flexible, but it also has to be strong or else it ends up very unstable.

So where is all this muscle you say? Simple, it is in the “human” torso. This also helps to explain why it makes sense for most of a centaur’s digestive to be in their “horse” body. While the lungs and heart take up most of the space in the upper part of their “human” torso, the lower part is almost entirely muscle anchoring them to the “horse” part of their bodies.

The other main difference when it comes to humans, horses, and centaurs is found mostly in the infants. Whereas horse young are up and about in a matter of hours, human infants are unable to hold their own heads up for several months. Surely this would be the downfall in centaurs, no?

I don’t believe that this would be the case. While they do have to be flexible in order to be born, that doesn’t necessarily equate to them having weak necks or “human” spines. My theory is that after birth, the “human” torso of centaur young would stiffen particularly around their spines allowing very little movement. Over time as they build the muscle and the ability to hold themselves up, this stiffness would gradually fade. It also helps that the parents, having arms, would be able to support their young in standing, moving, eating, etc.

This stiffness in the spine would most likely come from a serious of connective tissues that can essentially “lock” the spine into place. This would become something centaurs could likely control and would allow them to sleep upright for short periods of time the same way that horses do.

Integumentary and Sensory System

While most centaurs are depicted as having horse skin and hair on their “horse” parts and human skin and hair on their “human” parts, I don’t think that this would be realistic.

Horse hair functions as a barrier to things like weather and insects where as human hair cannot do these things. As a large nomadic race, it would make more sense for this horse hair to extend up onto their “human” torsos, possibly even on their arms. I don’t imagine the horse hair would grow on their faces and maybe not on their forearms or hands considering those areas are easier to reach and shield, but it makes sense for it to grow on their backs for instance. Imagining their chests covered in horse-like hair also makes it more comfortable to think about them not having nipples (sorry I’ll never let that bit go, lol).

It is likely that they would still have human-like hair anywhere that the horse-like hair wasn’t. For instance, facial hair and hair on their head.

The final feature of centaurs I will take the time to mention is that of their senses. The senses of touch, smell, sight, and taste would likely be the same as humans. The hearing of centaurs, however, would be more similar to that of a horse.

Here is a diagram of a horse’s ear:

In a horse’s ear, the pinnae can each move individually. This allows horses to be able to hear multiple sounds at once. Horses can also hear sounds at a wider range than humans, which allows them to pick out sounds that can mean danger. It makes sense for centaurs’ ears to have similar functions.

Overview

Overall, centaurs, if they were real, would be a mix of human and horse, taking certain traits from each to optimize survival.

Now of course, I didn’t go into mass amounts of detail as this would take a lot more time and research than I am willing to go into at the moment. I have also opted not to discuss certain body systems, such as the endocrine system, really for the same reasons. Here I’ve really only gone over the basics for realistic centaur anatomy and physiology. The rest, I will leave open to your own interpretations.

I hope you enjoyed this. I might make more posts like this in the future about mythological creatures and their societies, anatomies, etc.

If anyone has further questions about this or if there are other things you are curious about, feel free to ask.

Thank you for reading!

#centuar #mythology #greek mythology #making things make sense #anatomy #monster anatomy #horses #mixing a little bit of research with a little bit of common sense #dnd monster #writerslife #literally came up with most of this at midnight while I was trying to sleep #Centaurs are going to ruin my life but I love it #oc character

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