Litoria: the People

The Litorians are just like Homo sapiens with the following exceptions.

• 1. There is no difference, externally, between male and female Litorians, other than that, on the average, the females are shorter and weigh less.
• 2. They are completely hairless. The skin is similar to human skin and there are no scutes or scales. The skin is various shades of a dark green, with the soles and palms being lighter, almost white.
• 3. There are no external ears, but their hearing is comparable to that of Homo sapiens.
• 4. Vision extends into the ultraviolet ranges. The pupils are round.
• 5. There is a row of six pit organs on the upper lip to detect infrared radiation.
• 6. There is a parietal eye on top of the head, just behind the forehead. It is covered with translucent skin and assists in thermoregulation.
• 7. The male genitalia are internal, so that the male and female pubic area look the same. The male possesses only one inverted penis.
• 8. Females are ovoviviparous. They go into estrus in the autumn, as the days grow shorter.
• 9. The female ovum carries the chromosome for sex determination. The left ovary produces female ova and the right male. Ovulation from each ovary occurs concurrently.
• 9. Fraternal twins are born in the spring after a gestation of eight lunar months. The babies are bright blue at birth and gradually darken to green as they grow older.
• 10. The males possess a sagittal crest the skin of which turns red in the presence of a female in estrus.
• 11. Litorian dentition is the same as that of Homo sapiens, except that they lack incisors. The dental formula is 4.4, i.e., four canines and four molars.
• 12. The Litorian hand is just like the human hand. The four fingers are webbed between the proximal phalanges.
• 13. The foot, however, is different. It has the same structure as the human foot, but instead of nails on top of the toes, there are claws extending from the ends of the toes. The great toe is larger than the other four, but they are all of the same length. All five have three phalanges.
• 14. The skin of the soles is tougher than that of other parts of the body.
• 15. The chest musculature is the same as that of Homo sapiens, but, since the Litorians are not mammals, there are no nipples. There is no word for "breast" in their language.
• 16. There is a nasal bridge, but the cartilage of the septum is not as long as it is in Homo sapiens, so that the nostrils open forward more, and downward less.
• 17. There is a cloaca for the purposes of reproduction and urination. Defecation takes place in the same way as in humans.