Cardassians, cold- or warmblooded?

[Dal Rassak]

My assumption has always been that they're meant to be cold-blooded due to the reptilian aspect of their ancestry.

Their liking for heat is emphasized several times during the DS9 run; and the last volume of the Terok Nor trilogy (not strictly canon, o.k., but official) has Cardassian staff falling into an impaired lethargy when the environmental controls are compromised. This fits with reptile biology and would make sense.

 

[Sigokat]

That's an interesting question. I guess I never really thought about that, but I can see how they could very well be cold-blooded. Aren't they the only other reptilian like race besides the Gorn?

 

[Gul Re'jal]

While Cardassian physiology is suggested to be reptilian and their evolutionary ancestors were reptiles, they seem more mammalian than reptilian. And the ability to have offspring with mammals suggests they can't be very reptilian. So no, I don't think they are cold-blooded. Not anymore. Love for heat can be one of things that is left after they evolutionary past, but it doesn't have to mean they are cold-blooded.

 

[indolover]

I doubt that a polar bear or a gray seal would enjoy a tropical environment, nor an elephant an Arctic one. None of these species are reptiles.

One thing is that Earth-based animal taxonomy may only be Earth-based. Mammals as we know them on Earth may not have evolved exactly on other worlds. For all we know, Cardassians may have a reptilian physiology, but give birth in an exact manner to mammals. As a tangential point, Klingons appear to be descended distantly to carnivorous crustacean-like animals, and may even have retained crustacean traits despite them having hair and being (in that respect) mammalian.

 

[TheRoyalFamily]

That one ancient alien race influenced the evolution of a bunch of planets so they could all make babies together, more or less. So the Cardassians can't be that reptilian.

Also, why can't reptiles be warm-blooded? Maybe they are an evolutionary branch (modified, of course, by the mentioned ancient aliens) of Cardassian velociraptors or something.