As the most beautiful quadruped and the most useful animal to man, the horse makes a good prototype.
Let BCDEF be the body and the legs of a horse in such a manner, that
the legs, in order to be good for racing, be as high as GE and HD.
Draw
the line AI (the purple line) to represent the direction of the
vertebrae.
The line AY (green line) is the first rib, and, as a result,
"A" (green circle) is the center of movement of the first vertebral in the
neck (all animals have 7). The neck and the head together must be long
enough so that the animal can eat, i.e. AY (green line) + YZ (blue
line).
When the head is smaller in relation to the height of the animal, the neck must be able to stretch all the more, as is the case in camels, sheep, etc.
When the head lifts, the neck must curve either on the outside (the outer brown line) or on the inside (the inner brown line) as in old horses.
In order to have such a neck, the spine protuberances of the vertabras in the back have to be able to lift a lot; and they do in the horse (in AB). The length of the protuberances are less considerable in the other animals; particularly less so in man, who carries his head in a straight line.
The horse has a big muscle (the violet line) which is the reason horses can kick (an unique characteristic of the species). The cow does not have this muscle and is therefore characterized by a hollow in that same area (blue patch).
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