[quote]Oh So nothing deeper Purely superficial. Is the representation restricted to a certain animal family Reptile mammals etc[/quote] tl;dr for my post: yes and no. Some it is just superficial, some it isn't. I wound up typing more than I expected. Read on if you wish. You are not wrong. There are definitely individuals for whom their fursona is simply them, but with fur. Nothing deeper. Others use it as something to aspire to. Others still use it as a character or representative of an aspect of their personality. Some have multiple fursonas to fill multiple roles. For instance, one of my two fursonas, Hinto, is the face I want to put on when I'm relaxing, especially gaming. He's a good sport, graceful in both defeat and victory. And he doesn't swear. He's social and fun to be around. Max, my other fursona, is who the one I consider more as simply a furry version of myself. He's also the one who gets things done. Studying for or attending classes. Working. Meeting new people. He's polite and professional, but not stiff. An aspiring veterinarian (humorous career choice, I realize, but it is my own goal), he's always looking for means to his ends, but won't cause undue harm to others to achieve them. Some consider outlandish characters whom are nothing like themselves fursonas, such as one of my old characters, Zachary, who was effectively a living embodiment of darkness (he was actually the antagonist to a story I had going, but eventually stripped the anthro out of and made them human). He contained very little of my personality (he was much more like a mirror of me than me) and wasn't an individual I would aspire to be like either. Some would consider him a fursona nevertheless, but others would consider him simply an OC (original character). I'm kind of on the fence on that one. In the end, it runs the spectrum, from furred selves to exotic beings with incredible abilities. As for whether other textures work, they do. Loose terminology in the fandom is to refer to reptiles etc. as scalies and birds as avian or avies, but the blanket term "furry" can be applied to all, and all do make an appearance.