pony fur

[pteraptor 7]

pegasi may have pennaceously feathered forelegs, and alicorns may have a mixture of fur and feathers, and maybe wing hairs, and if so, may sometimes have feathers and fur of different colours, making them look bizzare.

What do you think about pony fur

[Fhaolan 4,468]

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that *all* pony coats are actually filoplumes (kinda half-way between a feather and a normal hair), or even down. Basically because of pegasi there's no guarantee that ponies are 'mammals' by the classic definition.

[SFyr 1,982]

In a way fur and feathers are actually pretty similar structures (same material, some structural similarities, etc); and with cartoon genetics I wouldn't be surprised if theirs drifted a good bit away from our normal grouping of what is furred and what is feathered, and how it's kept apart.

I've kinda just operated under the idea that it's regional, like body hair or mammal coat patterns. Certain regions have a slightly different expression of the same code, yielding feathers on some extremities and fur on others, etc. And, at the joints in between you might get some middle ground, or intermediate structure--or in other places too, just due to imperfect expression and the like.

[pteraptor 7]

1 hour ago, SFyr said:

In a way fur and feathers are actually pretty similar structures (same material, some structural similarities, etc); and with cartoon genetics I wouldn't be surprised if theirs drifted a good bit away from our normal grouping of what is furred and what is feathered, and how it's kept apart.

I've kinda just operated under the idea that it's regional, like body hair or mammal coat patterns. Certain regions have a slightly different expression of the same code, yielding feathers on some extremities and fur on others, etc. And, at the joints in between you might get some middle ground, or intermediate structure--or in other places too, just due to imperfect expression and the like.

I would onlly expect fur and feathers on an unnatural, hypermagical creature like an alicorn.

 

4 hours ago, Fhaolan said:

It wouldn't surprise me to find out that *all* pony coats are actually filoplumes (kinda half-way between a feather and a normal hair), or even down. Basically because of pegasi there's no guarantee that ponies are 'mammals' by the classic definition.

Ponies are mammals, because pound cake and pumpkin cake are lactose tolerant.

[SFyr 1,982]

18 hours ago, pteraptor said:

I would onlly expect fur and feathers on an unnatural, hypermagical creature like an alicorn.

Why, though?

Body-wise, pegasi seem to be interchangable with unicorns and earth-ponies, but they have feathered wings. So likely, if unicorns and earth ponies are only-fur, pegasi have both fur and feathers. Moreover, structurally speaking manes and tails are essentially long fur. It would be more likely that pegasi have no feathers, rather than no fur.

And going by our real world standards, all races are just about as relatively unnatural/magical--alicorns are just the most "powerful." And, given they can have children with non-alicorns, there has to be a very close genetic linkage, if there's any notable deviation at all. I would almost suggest, unless magic is weirdly at play, each pony carries the genetic code (even alicorns) for all races, and expression/alleles or epigenetics becomes more of a concern then distinct genetic code. Which again, would suggest both fur and feathers are coded for for all of them, even if not all races express it.

[pteraptor 7]

3 hours ago, SFyr said:

Why, though?

Body-wise, pegasi seem to be interchangable with unicorns and earth-ponies, but they have feathered wings. So likely, if unicorns and earth ponies are only-fur, pegasi have both fur and feathers. Moreover, structurally speaking manes and tails are essentially long fur. It would be more likely that pegasi have no feathers, rather than no fur.

And going by our real world standards, all races are just about as relatively unnatural/magical--alicorns are just the most "powerful." And, given they can have children with non-alicorns, there has to be a very close genetic linkage, if there's any notable deviation at all. I would almost suggest, unless magic is weirdly at play, each pony carries the genetic code (even alicorns) for all races, and expression/alleles or epigenetics becomes more of a concern then distinct genetic code. Which again, would suggest both fur and feathers are coded for for all of them, even if not all races express it.

All alicorns are unnatural

[CypherHoof 26,479]

2 minutes ago, pteraptor said:

All alicorns are unnatural

Well yeah, princess spell and all that.

But more than that, it seems they are genetically compatible - look at the Cakes and their twins...

[pteraptor 7]

3 minutes ago, CypherHoof said:

Well yeah, princess spell and all that.

But more than that, it seems they are genetically compatible - look at the Cakes and their twins...

but they might have converged to breed together

polygenism would not be alone on the list of discredited but plausible hypotheses true in the show.