galen external morphology

            Though the Galen are quite similar to Humans in many respects, such as the structure of their modern societies, and their lifecycle, their internal morphology is quite different, though there is a haunting familiarity of external design, a basic four limbed frame capable of bipedal walking, a head with familiar sense organs, and an overall bilateral symmetry which would not make it look out of place amongst Earth’s fauna.

            The Galen started out as quadrupeds, and their morphology has retained stout limbs (about 0.7m long and almost 0.2m thick on most parts apart from at the end) from this roaming lifestyle, but in more recent times the Galen have been able to stand on their back legs, though the full transition to comfortable bipedal locomotion is far from complete, and many Galen are still happiest on all fours, and no Galen enjoys the prospect of a long two legged walk without a chair at the end of it.

All four limbs terminate in four horn like digits arranged around a central leathery pad, the middle group of two digits are slightly more elongated and posses two knuckle joints though their movement is limited a little by horny plates, the digits either side of these central two are opposable, though only have one ‘knuckle’ joint. This digit arrangement is found on all the limbs, though some bipedal evolution has made the front limb ‘hands’ more dextrous, though the back of all the digits retains a horny plate. Though one might think the capabilities of these hands are limited, they are still a match for human dexterity, even with our millions of years of arboreal experience.

The main body is ovoid in cross section, measuring almost a metre long, the limbs are attached in a similar fashion to human physiology in pairs at the back and front, these pairs have migrated from the ‘underside’ of the body (underside from when the Galen is on all fours) to their ‘side on’ attachment during the evolution of bipedal locomotion. The result is a limb torso arrangement not too dissimilar to humans in gross physiology, this frame when upright stands at an average two metres tall (at adult).

Each limb has one ‘knee’ joint about half way along its length, it is rather more complex (and robust) than the human knee, consisting not only of the three bones that are the struts behind each section of limb, but also a number of joint bones (which ride between the joint faces of either side) and bony plates which serve to protect the joint and as an anchorage for tendons. When a Galen is on all fours, all these limb joint face and bend in the same direction, these strong joints also give the Galen an ability to pounce from this position for up to several metres.

The main torso is rather stockier than a human’s, and accommodates more internal viscera and superstructure. The back is plated with a mosaic of horny plates, that are smooth in the adult, where as are often horny and spiky in the infant, these plates grow smaller and smaller towards the belly where it eventually gives way to thick leathery skin. The same plate patterns can also be observed on the limbs and the head.

The head sits on a short horn plated neck, which gives it reasonable protection as well a fair degree of movement, the head itself is relatively large, and is not flat but comes forwards like a horse, though not as long. The ‘snout’ at the front of the face is a vertically running smooth ridge that slopes back to the forehead. The lower part of this ridge accommodates the upper jaw, and beneath this a smoothly receding lower jaw. The top part of the ridge contains a large scent organ, which not only acts as a pheromone source, but also a very sensitive nose. An eye is set either to the top part of the ridge, and these are set back into a sockets which themselves are surrounded by horny ridges. In addition to the upper and lower jaw there are two lateral jaw components whose motion is perpendicular to these two main jaw components and sit either side of the mouth. The distribution of these features across the face is quite similar to human design, though a long ridge has replaced the nose, and the eyes and small nostrils are set a little further up, as well as an extension of the whole face forward. Most of the surface of the face is a supple leather like that found on the underside, though sometimes horny plates make themselves a feature on the face, and these are quite unique to individual.

The modern Galen is still quite capable of folding its legs and head into a ball shape, which when the right way up on the ground presents any potential predator with a impenetrable horn armour, however the consequence of this design has meant a bulky and heavy frame, that has somewhat reduced agility, most adult Galen weigh upwards of 80kg, and many are over 100kg.

There are some physiological differences between the sexes, the most obvious are the small horn projections of the lateral jaws in adult males (thought to be a relic of true tusks or horns, and used for rutting fights), and the ‘flared neck’ in females (something that reduces the turning ability of the neck, and was lost in males for increased ability in rutting fights). There are also subtle differences in muscle distribution, that although still make each gender look like a military tank, gives the female a more pleasantly curved look, and the male a more stocky and muscular look.