Which image from the bottom row should replace the question mark?
Show Hint
Look separately at the shape of the back/body line (flat, domed, or dipped) and the style of the legs (bent feet, a plain tripod, or a wide fan of straight rays). Each of the three types appears exactly once in every row and every column.
Step 1: Split each creature into two separate features.
Every figure has a dot for a head, a body line running from the head to a curved tail, and a set of legs hanging from that body line. Two things vary from figure to figure: the shape of the body line, and the style of the legs.
Step 2: Identify the three body line shapes used.
Looking across the grid, the body line is either a flat straight line, an arch that domes upward, or a shallow dip that curves downward before rising again. Each row uses all three shapes exactly once, and so does each column.
Step 3: Identify the three leg styles used.
The legs are either two bent, right-angled legs that end in a small foot, a plain tripod of three straight legs spread evenly, or a wide fan of several straight legs bunched close together. Just like the body shape, each row and each column uses all three leg styles exactly once.
Step 4: Read off what row 3 and column 3 already contain.
Row 3 so far has a domed body with a wide fan of legs, then a dipped body with bent legs. The body shape missing from row 3 is the flat line, and the leg style missing from row 3 is the plain tripod.
Column 3 so far has a domed body with a wide fan of legs, then a dipped body with bent legs. The same two features, flat body and tripod legs, are the ones missing from column 3 as well.
Step 5: Match this description to the answer figures.
Image 5 shows a flat, straight body line with three straight legs spread out evenly, exactly the flat-body-plus-tripod-legs combination that both the row and the column are missing.
Final Answer:
The missing figure has a flat body and three straight tripod legs, which is image 5.
\[ \boxed{5} \]
