My post about the platta. Critique, I pray you!

The platta are often the size of a greyhound, and the shape of a young sheep, only with a little longer neck and smaller head. The muzzle tends to be like a cone in general shape, so that the head is like a teardrop. Its eyes are small. Its head resembles a small rodent in shape, but the eyes are so far back that it would also remind one of a whale. It has paws like a swift dog, rather than hooves like a

The platta are lemeni, which is a category like birds, reptiles, or mammals. Birds have feathers, reptiles have scales, mammals have hair, and the lemeni have lemen. Lemen is a wiry web which fills the skin, which is in other ways like a birds skin, and anchored to the web are legs like insects legs, as small and as numerous as a mammals fur and hair, and the web is in turn anchored to the bones.

In the platta the lemen legs are especially long around the shoulders and hindquarters, and especially short on the tail and face. While the rest of the lemen legs are usually black, the shortest legs are a whitish gray, as if they are transparent. The way the joints of the lemen legs are bent a little at rest, it gives the impression of curly wool (with something wrong about it). But it can bristle more fiercely than a wolf, and ripple its legs to confuse its enemies or prey.

The eyes reflect a little pink in some lights. And, as you may have guessed, they are not very functional. The lemen web and legs act as a sensory system, which is actually the primary sensory system. It detects vibrations. The ears are also small and mouselike, and better than their eyes.

The platta eat small animals that it runs down, such as ground squirrels and melga (which are like miniature beavers). They also climb trees to raid nests.

They run quickly on their long legs, but they also lay on their sides and creep over the ground on the lemen legs, which can at least be as quick as a beetle can gallop (most likely quicker, since it would press things down, instead of having to climb up and over every little grass blade as a beetle would). They can climb trees as little as a dog can on their paws, but they lean against a tree and can use the lemen legs to climb like a spider.

I think, especially in the moonlight, to see a black sheep lying on the ground, and moving across it without being dragged, and going up the side of a tree without one foot moving, would seem eerie. What would you think?

The platta range in size just as dogs do. Some can reach the size of a llama, though without so long a neck. At this size, of course, they eat more than small animals. Those of this size are called cophephag.

The platta make no noise that I know of, unless, like a bats sounds, they are higher than our range of hearing. The cophephag are silent as well, but they sometimes make a rushing, spewing sound when they are mating. It is like the sound of pressure release valve, or a semi-truck releasing its brakes.

They have lemen legs as soon as they are born (which are nearly white, or transparent), except on the top of their head (so they are bald at birth). They also have a small hole, like a third nostril between the other two, but it is not a nostril, and is not connected to the lungs. I have not found out what it is for. It soon vanishes after they learn to walk. They walk like little piglets when they are young. The young make faint, panting noises in their noses.

The young are fed with worms until they can eat harder food, no milk. As far as I know, few lemeni use milk (or lay eggs). I may post about lemeni in general sometime.


There is my post about the platta, what do you think of them?
What are your favorite things about them? Did anything confuse you? Do you want to hear more about anything in particular?

Do you have anything to add? Does this remind you of anything? Does it remind you of anything you have read before?

Critique, I pray you!

Sounds pretty interesting. The lemeni legs and webbing sounds like a neat way to add a new class of animals. I'm a little confused how that works exactly, and what are the pros and cons of having that web.

One thing I would ask how the laying on their sides and all that works. If they were sneaking up on something, then how would they make the transition to make the kill? Also, wouldn't they lose some of their ability to sense things around them if they are using the lemeni legs to walk?

On other notes of questions, other than vibrations, what sort of things and the lemeni legs sense? Could they pick up on chemicals? Like maybe they can sense certain animal hormones in the air or on the ground.
Also, what are some of the adaptational limits of this creature? Could they grow more lemeni legs to keep warm in a cooler climate? Could they live underground since they don't rely on their eyes very much? Like imagine all of the various kinds of dogs and try to think of some near relatives of the Platta.

Very good questions Andorin! Thank you for posting!

The web is how the legs are anchored to the bone. If they were anchored to the skin they would be too weak, and tear out. If the legs were all anchored directly to the bone they would have to pass through the flesh and the skin, like hair growing out of the bone. The web is, of course, unseen unless the plattanis

They always use their paws when they are hunting. The lemen is only an alternative for long distances. Their four legs are suited more to running than steady going.

They do use their lemen to climb trees to raid nests, but it does not take great speed to catch an egg.

There is a fable of two platta running from wolves, and the one tried to climb a tree with its paws, and slipped off, and was eaten. But the more sober plattanis crept up the side of the tree with its lemen legs, and escaped the wolves, though only by a few inches. And of course the moral of it is that haste is slowest because to fail is slowest.

Actually since they sense vibrations, it would be similar to putting your ear to the ground. *half grinning *

In the platta they can only sense temperature and vibrations, but the sensing of vibrations is their main sense. But you are right that some lemeni would sense other things. I think one common other sense would be taste, as it is in insects. But I think the most common would be heat seeking senses. This is a very good question.

They would never shed their legs, so if they grew more, they would quickly run out of room on their skin (and look rather odd too...). But they would regrow legs that are broken or cut off.

When the legs grow, I believe on some lemeni they shed a covering like an insects exoskeleton (which they would have to scratch off), but the platta do not; their lemeni legs soften, grow, harden for a time, then soften, grow again, harden again, soften again, grow again, and so on.

I believe the hair would have a lighter color when it is softer, but this would not be too noticeable, since the legs would not all soften at once (that would be very dangerous), single legs would soften individually, scattered over the body.

There would be seasons, though, when this would happen more continuously and more legs at a time, and there would be a slightly "salted" look during these seasons. I think these seasons would most often be in late summer, early fall. When the plattanis has fully grown its legs, this would stop.

I believe that there are many kinds of underground lemeni, but I believe the platta live in the open air, like deer.

I am not sure whether the platta are more like sheep, dogs, spiders, birds, lizards, llamas, or centipedes. There are, of course, smaller relatives of the platta. I believe these would live in the open as well, unlike most small animals. The cophephag may use natural caves to rear their young in though.