Centaurians are a sapient species of mobile predatory vegetation from a planet orbiting the star Proxima Centauri.
Biology[]
Centaurians are bulbous vegetable creatures with two arms, two legs, hairless skin and no differentiated head. They have neither mouths nor nostrils, and their faces consist solely of a pair of slit-like eyes. Their tentacular arms branch into tendril-like digits at the end. The legs are jointless and move in a strange "rolling gait".
Centaurians evolved from carnivorous plants, but are as far removed from them as Humans are from sea anemones. Their bodies are composed of cellulose fibers in an analogous way to how Humans and other animals are composed of muscle fibers. Like plants, Centaurians consume carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. They have evolved to prey on animal life, and only consume vegetable matter if they have no other options available.
Centaurians are liquivores and absorb food through holes in their arms, since they have no mouth. Their arms secrete digestive fluids that liquefy the prey's flesh almost instantly. They communicate by producing sounds with a stridulating organ housed in a special body cavity. Their bodies can withstand forces of acceleration that would be uncomfortable or even deadly for Humans, allowing them to build faster spaceships.
Culture and society[]
The most curious aspect of Centaurian culture is that they view animal life not only as food, but also as precious materials. Objects made from animal matter such as fur or leather are treated as incredibly valuable luxuries akin to how Humans view precious metals and gemstones. Over the course of their development, Centaurians have consumed and driven to extinction virtually all animal life on their homeworld and other worlds in their star system.
Centaurians have mastered biological sciences in a way similar to how Humans have mastered metallurgy, and are able to grow buildings and even functional spaceships out of wood, complete with cellulose hulls that can withstand the vacuum of space.
They have explored (and exploited) all habitable worlds of Proxima Centauri, but curiously have no concept of colonization, and thus their civilization is restricted to their home planet.
Appearances[]
- "Proxima Centauri", by Murray Leinster (1935)