Explore "Big Ancestor" by Floyd L. Wallace on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Man's family tree was awesome enough to give every galactic race an inferiority complex -- but then he tried to climb it!
In repose, Taphetta the Ribboneer resembled a fancy giant bow on a package. His four flat legs looped out and in, the ends tucked under his wide, thin body, which constituted the knot at the middle. His neck was flat, too, arching out in another loop. Of all his features, only his head had appreciable thickness and it was crowned with a dozen long though narrower ribbons.