So I'm working on a novel where long story short, most of the creatures and beings of mythology originated from a different planet. I'm trying to work out the creature that were mistaken to be pegasi. I'm think they're more like hexapod creatures then a thing with 4 legs and wings, but I'm trying to jus work out how the anatomy should work.
What do you want them to be able to do? Can they fly? Can people ride them? Would you rather the creature be a mammal, reptile, bird or some combination of those?
Earth doesn't have any vertebrates with six legs, so there's no anatomical precedent to go by. I would imagine that a hexapedal animal would need some kind of 'middle' bone somewhere between the shoulders and the hips in order to support the middle set of legs, but it would sort of depend what the middle limbs were used for. If for flying, the bone structure would need to support a good amount of muscle. If for running, it would need to be jointed well so that the animal could move smoothly. You could also have wings that are there, but not used for flying, like an ostrich has.
Whatever the case, I would imagine a hexapedal animal having a longer torso than a normal horse.
Yeah. I'd like for them to fly and be ridable, I'm just trying to get it to make sense anatomically. So that it could legit fly if it existed, but still keep the general 'shape' that's associated with a pegasus.