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Have this hoofed biped with pale nearly furless skin with a bit of thick blubberyness. I imagine a bit like some of our sea mammals. Green blood can be seen somewhat through the skin. Around human sized. Legs are human-like. Have 3 hoofed toes on each foot- 2 in front and 1 in back. Hoofed fingers. Horse-like head. Herbivorous. Very polite with very many social rituals; we would probably see them as excessive.

What might this creature's environment be like to give them these traits? What things would make a society very polite and full of so many social rituals? (I figured environmental factors would factor into culture behavior somewhat, like my world where it was essential for groups to work together quickly and effectively to fight off large predators and other threats, resulting in their suspicious nature and common mob mentalities)

I figure that their world could be almost constantly overcast, by means of a thick atmosphere, for their skin to be pale.

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    $\begingroup$ "What things would make a society very polite and full of so many social rituals" Occasionally ban people for breaking social rules, don't explain why. $\endgroup$ – Muuski Oct 11 '19 at 22:14
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    $\begingroup$ The medieval Chinese high society was famously very polite and full of intricate social conventions. It was also contemporary with the very much less polite Mongol society. Which goes to show that politeness and social ritual is not a characteristic of the species. You are mixing up biology and sociology, and this is a severe category error. $\endgroup$ – AlexP Oct 11 '19 at 22:18
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    $\begingroup$ @Muuski: The reason is, as always, pour encourager les autres (to encourage the others), in the immortal words of Voltaire. $\endgroup$ – AlexP Oct 11 '19 at 22:20
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Let's review the traits individually.

Green Blood

As ShadoCat said it does tend to imply a copped based blood, but a number of iron based compounds are different colors. Ferroferricyanide is better known as Prussian Blue. Jaundice is caused by a build up of bilirubin in the blood. Methemoglobinemia is a disease where hemoglobin is replace by methemoglobin. It is responsible for the Blue Fugates of Kentuck. A combination of slightly unusual blood chemistry will result in mostly normal people/creatures with green blood.

There are adaptation penalties with these defects but they are survivable, and if there is an evolutionary benefit (like protection against malaria that comes with sickle cell anemia) it might be a common trait. It could even be the result of a founder effect.

Hoofs

Small hard feet are common animals that browse and graze, things that spend a lot of time wandering around on fairly hard surfaces eating low nutrition.

Hairless

This tends to occur in a few situations. Aquatic animals (Cetaceans, Sirenia) and Thick skinned animals (Pachyderms, Armadillos). There are edge cases which once again focus on founder effects and parasitism.

Bipedalism

This is fairly rare. Humans of course, Kangaroos and the like, as well as some birds. There are some quadrupeds that occasionally adopt a bipedal stance to reach higher leaves.

Looking at real animals we have some which tick a lot of the boxes.

Gerenuk: semi-bipedal, hooves Swine: Hairless, hooves Humans: Hairless, Bipedal Hippos: Hairless, semi-hoofed Ostrich: Bipedal

Probably the best course for evolution would be something in a forest that changed over time from something dense allowing for the loss of hair that then shifted to a more savannah environment where it was necessary to forage from the leaves of trees.

Parasitism or a founder effect could cover the green blood.

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Green blood implies copper based blood. This could happen but copper is not as good at binding oxygen as iron and is not quite as common.

Octopi have copper based blood and they get exhausted quickly since their blood does not hold as much oxygen. So, your creatures would be great bursters/sprinters but would suck at endurance.

I would give their world a higher oxygen content then Earth just to help them out a bit.

The legs are a bit problematic. If you don't mind them having "backward knees" like most 4 legged creatures, it is easy to justify them needing to reach up and grab food or manipulate things to get a food (leading to hands and, eventually upright posture).

Hooves and backward knees are both enhancements to make running and jumping more efficient. If their ancestors weren't good at running, you have to figure out how they survived long enough to develop hands.

Human knees came from tree climbers and I don't see hooves being good at climbing trees.

The rest is just cultural and can be extrapolated from herd behavior.

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    $\begingroup$ I've seen the article here about leg type pros and cons, but I guess I'm still having some trouble determining which would be best for different creature's circumstances. I guess I'll need to do a little design change. $\endgroup$ – Chickenpeep Chickenpeep Oct 11 '19 at 23:41
  • $\begingroup$ @ChickenpeepChickenpeep, just think of what would be the best leg design for whatever they were before they were bipedal. $\endgroup$ – ShadoCat Oct 12 '19 at 0:50
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Adding to ShadoCat's excellent answer since I have no justification for green blood...

It is believed that hooves evolved to help handle increasing body mass in plains herbivores but they have also proven useful to creatures living in high jagged terrain (mountain goats). So your bipeds will have plains or mountain dewellers in their evolutionary history. Their being herbivores favors the plains history, but the segmented (cloven) hooves favor the mountains. So maybe include both.

The hoove-ed fingers suggest that bipedal may be a recent and possibly incomplete evolutionary improvement.

Looking to human evolution to justify your biped's fur-less skin, you can choose one of three prevailing theories...

1). They have an recent aquatic mammalian ancestor.

2). They lost the hair to keep from overheating in their extremely hot Savannah style territories.

3). They lost their fur to discourage fatal pest infestations.

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    $\begingroup$ In the dream the creature originated from, I remember pale skin, so I made their planet primarily overcast so they wouldn't sunburn, so it might be a bit chilly, so I imagine them to be slightly blubbery like a seal, so the first one sounds the most likely. $\endgroup$ – Chickenpeep Chickenpeep Oct 11 '19 at 23:46
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    $\begingroup$ Rock climbing could have lead to hands if they needed to get to harder to reach places and needed to grip and pull themselves up or if they needed to grab food just higher than they could reach through climbing. $\endgroup$ – ShadoCat Oct 12 '19 at 0:51
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Green Blood

Green blood can be seen somewhat through the skin

That doesn't mean they HAVE green blood, however. I have red blood when you cut me open, but the veins you CAN see under my pale-as-heck skin--those are blue, NOT red.

Contrary to popular belief, blood is always red, even if it hasn't been oxygenated.

So why can blue blood be somewhat seen through the skin on pale people?

It's an optical illusion.

Sometimes blood can look blue through our skin. Maybe you've heard that blood is blue in our veins because when headed back to the lungs, it lacks oxygen. But this is wrong; human blood is never blue. The bluish color of veins is only an optical illusion. Blue light does not penetrate as far into tissue as red light. If the blood vessel is sufficiently deep, your eyes see more blue than red reflected light due to the blood's partial absorption of red wavelengths. SOURCE

Stuff that's really close to the surface in the capillaries still look red (which is why lips are a ruddy color).

My point here is that you can have the effect of them looking green, or their blood looking green when it is inside them without their blood actually BEING green. All you have to do is add yellow to their skin structure. Not a pigment, the actual structure. And even then, they STILL might have pinkish "lips" or whatever.

So they might look unusual and colloquially they might refer to their green blood (which if they are herbivores makes sense), kind of like how we talk about blue bloods. An outsider might actually believe that they have green blood inside, because it's talked about and they have a "green cast" (ie. deep vessels that can be easily seen with more frequency than human vessels through yellowish skin) when in truth, they are just as red-blooded as we are.

Bad weather Those who are suggesting a higher oxygen level on your planet to allow for the blood to actually be green, there are theoretical models for that They use OUR planet as the model so YMMV. Basically more oxygen = less rain. So you're going to have to come up with another reason for it, or rebuild the atmosphere in a different way.

Planet of the ? While we are on the subject--an entire planet with one atmospheric condition is a big trope. And for a planet that sustains life on a complex level? Very strange indeed. Humans are versatile, but where we came from informs what we are like--we walk because we needed to see predators in the grass. Your folks might prefer gloom and wet to sunshine and settle in places that have that, but the whole planet being one particular way, is a stretch.

I think this stack exchange link will be useful to you: Why does my species tock like it ticks?

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    $\begingroup$ Their pale skin is a bit yellowish, so that could work $\endgroup$ – Chickenpeep Chickenpeep Oct 13 '19 at 21:43
  • $\begingroup$ Perhaps I can make the atmosphere thicker to make it appear more how I want it. $\endgroup$ – Chickenpeep Chickenpeep Feb 14 '20 at 3:08

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