Quote:That tri word is a blank of searches, but I mean in vertibrates. Sure, invertibrates have lots of examples with hoards of legs, but skeletal structure get real bulky if they are on the inside and have hoards of limbs. You just run out of space to put limbs after 6 or 7. And they start limiting each others mobility. After a while a naturally evolved race vestigializing the extra limbs as they aren't worth the energy to grow them. You can do it on a seperentine frame, as there is room enough, however the limbs eventually are less effective than ditching them like snakes.
Wierder things have happened, just look at trichordites.
Even with invertebrates anything that leaves the waters (deep space) is limited in size before extra limbs are counter productive. For example the Giant killer ant movie 'Them!' caused people to freak as the populous took the large pickup truck sized ants as realistic possibility, atmoic radiation mutantion making it worse. It got to the point the government funded a study to see how big an ant could get before collapsing under its on weight... The answer was apparently wolf/large dog sized.
This is partly diminishing returns in action (after a while the limbs are more hinderance then help for actual usage) and partially because physics carries a large rubber stamp of smiting with 'NO' on it. Even with the largest dinosaurs the resent theories/data is saying hollow bones and large lungs, if I remember correctly they had something like airsacs in them to take up space and get air to the bulk of the creatures.
More limbs also take up more and more brain power... to the point you need more brains or larger brains to make the creature function. The more brain power moving around takes up the less brain power available to think with. Again an effect of diminishing returns. As it is the NekoKai are probably sporting a smaller hindquaters brain(s) for the tails anyway. Which may explain the cultural sex focus... the lower brains act as a signal booster... With not having to deal with the senses of sight, smell, hearing, or taste. All brain power is centered on feeling and muscle movement.
Now with a more sectional copy semetric design you can get more limbs, but you end up with starfish and Xorn like things... which is a different issue altogether for structural designs and brings us back to the exoskeletons for support structure.