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Lately, I've been looking at Google images of "centaur skeleton", but they don't look that convincing to me. The problem is whether or not the last human lumbar vertebra would be the right size to fit on the first equine thoracic vertebra as easily as clicking on a strap.

In a sci-fi horror, a mad scientist had come up with the process of "genetic bonding", in which it is possible to glue and suture at least two different bodies using only the specimens' raw genetic materials. To that end, he had cut the legs and hips off an unwitting test subject so that, through genetic bonding, he could latch his last lumbar to the first thoracic of an ungulate to create a real-live centaur. Neither bone must be too big nor too small. The fit has to be just right.

Would this still be accomplished through a horse, or could an alternative species of ungulate have a thoracic vertebra size that is closer to the "Goldilocks plan"?

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    $\begingroup$ Could you post two diagrams, one of a human skeleton and one of a horse skeleton, showing on each where the join should be? That would help a lot. $\endgroup$
    – chasly - supports Monica
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 0:08
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    $\begingroup$ Should we be considering the fact that sowing the circulatory systems of 2 different creatures together would probably cause their immune systems to attack each other? Or are we ignoring that? $\endgroup$
    – cowlinator
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 0:52
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    $\begingroup$ @cowlinator Bones first. We'll focus on the organs in a different question. $\endgroup$
    – JohnWDailey
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 0:58
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    $\begingroup$ there are too many problems to name,so the biggest issues are, you can't have two hearts in a mammal without blowing one of them out, a humans trachea is too small for a horse to breath through nor can a human mouth eat the kind a food a horse digestive system needs, the human spine ends before it gets that far down so no spinal connection, and lastly bones are pointless without the muscle and tendon attachments supporting them. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 1:29
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    $\begingroup$ I should think that doing the impossible is exactly what makes it mad science to begin with. $\endgroup$
    – Cadence
    Commented Sep 2, 2020 at 3:53

1 Answer 1

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Summary

The sci-fi answer to your question is yes. There is a solution that involves coupling the spines and some other functions. This will work to create the first generation specimen prototypes, which the scientist can reiterate on until achieving sufficient results.

An interesting point to note is the solution, in theory, can be produced fully from biological materials. This implies that the solution can be used to create an entirely biological race of centaurs.

Detailed explanation and blueprint diagram follows.

Spine Coupler

To that end, he had cut the legs and hips off an unwitting test subject so that, through genetic bonding, he could latch his last lumbar to the first thoracic of an ungulate to create a real-live centaur. Neither bone must be too big nor too small. The fit has to be just right.

For this particular problem, we can probably assume that the mad scientist wants to pull off biologically impossible stunts, not just this once with a centaur, but with various other creatures as well.

It is most likely that these creatures will have different spine sizes (even between members of the same species), so joining most animals would be in the realm of impossibility...

Unless, of course, the scientist took inspiration from the world of plumbing:

A Pipe Coupling, used in piping or plumbing, is a very short length of pipe or tube with either socket or female pipe threads at one or both ends that allows two pipes or tubes of equal or different sizes to be joined together.

enter image description here

Thus, the creation of the Spine Coupler, a thaumaturgic device capable of coupling two spines of different sizes. Each Spine Coupler has to be hand-crafted to fit the end of each victim's beneficiary's spine, and plays the role of converting human nerve signals for legs, into those for the centaur's legs.

It could convert some reproductive organ nerve signals as well, and combined with some crazy modifications to the horse's reproductive organs, or a little thaumaturgy, will allow centaur reproduction.

There remains, however, the problem of the nerve signals for the centaur's critical organs. The centaur's lower half would quickly die from asphyxiation as the heart and lungs fail to function without nerve signals from the brain.

Brain Housing

Once the horse's head is removed, as a mad scientist, it would be a waste of materials for the horse brain to be discarded. In addition, there is also the issue of the horse's organs not being able to receive the necessary signals to function.

But what if the brain doesn't go to waste, but is used to solve this particular problem instead?

The other function of the Spine Coupler, is to house the portions of the horse's brain that is in charge of the nerve signals to the horse's organs.

One end of the Spine Coupler takes in the input from the human brain, the middle end houses a portion of the horse's brain, and the end, outputs the human leg inputs translated into horse leg inputs, as well as the necessary nerve signals for functioning of the organs.

As to the modifications necessary to make air and food holes for the horse's lungs, and digestive system, these can be looked into in another question.

Conclusion and Diagram

In conclusion, with the aid of a little thaumaturgy/mad science, the mad scientist can couple the spines to route various signals from a human brain and partial horse brain to achieve the goal of combining the man and horse's nervous systems.

Although at first the human may have to take baby steps, with some horse-style rehabilitation, the human will eventually be able to learn how to control the centaur legs as his own, giving birth to the world's first realistic centaur.

Due to the coupler theoretically not needing any actual non-organic parts to create, new biological centaurs (as in, centaurs that are 100% natural) can also be created. Perhaps with the aid of some thaumaturgy and/or a mad AI to simulate the genetic sequences, the coupler can eventually be designed to be a part of the centaur's actual spinal cord, acting as a biological coupler, and allowing centaurs to create entirely new generations autonomously.

Prototype Diagram below:

enter image description here

Link to editable diagram here should you wish to do your own mad science.

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