Raharrs:Anatomy

Biology

Appearance

Raharr sexes

The upper extremities have three long flexible fingers, one of which is opposed to the others, and the lower extremities have three toes. The third toe gradually lost its mobility in the process of evolution and is now more a part of the heel than a functional part of the body, but it can still move and helps in balancing.

The upper pair of arms is anatomically convergent to human arms, except spaced farther from the body. It is necessary for the free space of the second pair of arms. The lower pair is not fixed to the skeleton and kept in place only by muscles and ligaments (kinda like in cats). They're physically much weaker than the top arms since they are used mainly only for grasping onto tree branches or resting the weight of the body upon them. Because of this, as well as anatomical structure, the lower pair of limbs are still able to allow leaning onto, or hold lightweight items, but are not capable of lifting a lot of weight, under the risk of damage to ligaments and muscles.

The torso is elongated and trapezoidal, and the rib cage is divided into two segments which can slightly slide relative to each other, diminishing the overall rigidity of the upper section of the body. The tail is equal in length to the rest of the body and has a fin that occupies half the length in females and two-thirds of the length in males. It is moveable relative to, the most in a horizontal plane, and the flexibility gradually increases towards the tip. It assists with propulsion in water and helps with balancing on land. The size of the fin in raharr society is one of the criteria of attractiveness.

Raharrs have "hair", similar in structure and function to terrestrial analogue, but their "hairs" look more like triangular stripes, reminiscent of grass leaves. They are pale and almost colorless at the base, but darkens and brightens in color as it grows. It is concentrated on the head and upper neck and is virtually non-existent in other parts of the body. In some cases, the growth area is enlarged down to the middle of the back.

The body has a two-tone color, with white skin on the inner surfaces of the limbs and torso on the front side, and the darker pigment being distributed on the external parts of the body and spine. Pigmentation also forms stripes, the number of which can vary on the tail and face. Females are painted lighter than males and have fewer stripes on the tail.

On average, raharrs is 200-230 cm tall (~7.5 ft) and weighing 130-160 kg (~300 lbs). Females are usually taller than males.

Sexual dimorphism is expressed in a smaller distribution of body fat, broader shoulders, and greater physical strength in males compared with females, who in turn have wider hips, rounder claws, and curving upwards nose.

Senses

Four eyes allow the raharrs to have both binocular and monocular vision, but the rear pair of eyes is slightly less developed and oriented more on detecting the movement, rather than providing a sharp image. The pupils of both eyes vertically oval and the iris can be in different shades of green, yellow, or blue. A relatively rare mutation can also give the iris a dull red color.

A raharrs hearing is worse than humans, due to their main sensory input being vision, but that's more because of the almost flat, conical shape of the ear rather than the sensitivity of the eardrum. The ears have a valve that closes the ear canal, to protect the eardrum from water or loud sounds. Their sense of smell is more acute than a human one, but not by much. Like their ears, it also has a valve that can isolate the nostril from water. These valves mostly operate reflexively, but raharrs can open and close them consciously.

Environment

Raharrs feel comfortable in the range from +20 to +40 degrees Celsius and can withstand the air temperatures up to +65 degrees. They cope with freezing temperatures noticeably worse because Harr has virtually no polar regions and winters; at -15 degrees, they could already experience frostbite and a swift death from hypothermia. Due to evolving in a solar system with relatively active stars, the fauna of Harr better tolerates radiation, and raharrs are no exception. Their skin is denser, blocks more radiation, and their DNA is also considerably more resistant to ionizing radiation, although not immune to it completely. On average, raharrs can live in an environment that has twice the radiation background and three times as strong ultraviolet radiation than Earth levels without any side-effects.

Internal organs

The chest consists of two main departments with the ability to slide against each other. Thus, the rib cage retains the stiffness necessary to protect internal organs, but is nevertheless flexible, allowing raharrs to bend better. The lower pair of hands does not have collarbones, and therefore is poorly able to hold body weight and is usually not used for this. The trachea goes behind the esophagus, clinging to the spine.

Reproduction

Raharrs, like most known species, reproduce sexually and have males and females. Pregnancy lasts about 7 months and ends with the birth of one to two newborns. Large quantities are much less common. Newborns can move around right from birth (first crawling, then moving on all limbs, smoothly turning into fully developed bipedal posture), but are blind in their first year of life and undergo a prolonged phase of additional development and growth that lasts about 15 years, after which begins the puberty phase, during which growth slows down. Their growth stops when they reach the age of 25. From birth to about the middle of the development period, children are extremely limited in their ability to digest food (although they can eat some types of food right from birth). Due to this, their parents feed them by regurgitating partially digested food. With the development of civilization, however, there has been an increasing prevalence of pre-prepared nourishing mixtures and is almost universally considered the best, safer, and more aesthetic version of feeding.

Diet

Raharrs are omnivorous and eat an extremely wide range of both plant and animal food, but the basis of their diet is meat, usually prepared in some way. Gastric hyperacidity, together with a separate specialized organ, allows them to safely decompose biological poisons and venoms. As a result, it is very difficult for a raharr to die from intoxication. This is a consequence of the conditions of fauna and flora of Harr, where most of the species use poison or venom as a means of defense or offense. These mechanisms, however, do not work well against inorganic and synthetic toxic substances, either by not degrading them into safe components or degrading them into elements that are no less dangerous. This results in heavy poisoning of the organism and their metabolism is not fast enough and not used to dealing with contamination by quickly getting the toxins out of the body, which makes the impact on their health even worse. Raharrs do not have that immunity to poisons right from the start and it develops only after maturing of the bowels, which correlates accurately with the end of the period of the manual feeding pre-chewed food by parents.