Cardassians: Reptiles or Mammals?

[Christopher]

^^And of course the vole also has the "spoon" on its forehead. (I wonder what anatomical function that serves.)

 

[LightningStorm]

lvsxy808, I changed that image to a link. Hotlinking from Memory Alpha isn't allowed unless you own the site. For more about the hotlinking rules (and pictures in general) see this thread http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=63206

Thanks

 

[JD]

I'd always thought they were in their own classification that was a combination of mammal and reptile. The therapsid idea sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Trent Roman]

^^And of course the vole also has the "spoon" on its forehead. (I wonder what anatomical function that serves.)

Hmm. Spitballing here, but most pictures of Cardassians, the scoop looks like an extension of the cartillage of the nose. Maybe it's the outward manifestation of the nasal cavity which, amongst Cardassian lifeforms, continues up and out to the front of the skull. Not sure why... something to do with the hot air of Cardassia, perhaps; maybe the skin within the scoop is more porous and lets the excess heat (which, of course, rises) out. Or maybe a sinus--humans have two pockets just above the eyebrow; in Cardassians, the sinus frontals are combined into one, in the middle of the face. Of course, we're not entirely clear what our sinuses do, so in terms of function...

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[The Borg Queen]

I thought Memory Alpha and Trek BBS were sister sites?

 

[JAG]

Nope, no connection.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I think the book said (this could just be my imagination) that the female Cardassian's blueish tinge on the spoon-like appendage on their forehead might have changed color depending upon their mating cycle or readiness.

I always thought that was make-up? Since its not on all the neck ridges...

Hm...I'd always thought more like the first theory--that it was essentially a secondary sex characteristic (a coloring that appeared in puberty). Given the fertility focus in Cardassian culture, I wouldn't be surprised if that coloring occurred at or soon after menarche.

It doesn't have to be on every one of the neck scales, I don't think, in order to still fit that theory.

 

[DevilEyes]

Here comes my totally non-canon answer, the one that I've gone with in my fanfics. Your mileage may vary.

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The Cardassians are similar to Earth mammals--but exist in their own subset much as the marsupials or monotremes of Earth do (the latter being an especially appropriate example). This means that while many characteristics are very similar to the more typical mammalian species, they exhibit other traits that seem reptilian in nature, that for whatever reason have been retained in their world's evolutionary track even though they were not on other worlds.

The relation between Earth's monotremes and other types of mammals in particular make a great comparison...as you can see, there was originally a great deal of dispute as to what they were. Another example of such a relation between groups--without the two groups being one and the same--is the relation between reptiles and class Aves (i.e. birds).

I would suspect the differences have to be less than those between reptiles and birds, or between placental mammals and monotremes...however, there is no reason those characteristics cannot be the same as some of those seen in Earth reptiles. (The ancestors of Earth's mammals, for instance, initially had scales and hair simultaneously...what if that arrangement had continued even as the rest of our features shifted into what we now recognize as mammalian?)

As for the interbreeding issue...who knows what Dukat had Tora Naprem treated with during the pregnancy (and the same when he got Mika pregnant)? I don't think we've ever seen how much (if any) medical intervention is required to bring a cross-species pregnancy to term when Cardassians are involved. Therefore I don't think that can be a criterion for determining exactly how similar the Cardassians are to Earth's placental mammals: who knows what kind of genetic meddling went on?

Dukat seemed as surprised as anyone that the baby turned out to be half-Cardassian and seemed to come up with his explanation on the spot, while Mika looked terrified, and the entire scene certainly didn't seem pre-planned by either of them, which suggests that she hadn't known for sure if the baby was her husband's or Dukat's (and might have expected it to be her husband's since people might not expect hybrids to be so easily conceived?) It doesn't seem like they had any kind of medical treatments.

And anyway - the very fact that a baby is conceived in the first place suggests very similar DNA. There's just no way to deny that and maintain even a resemblance of plots making some sense scientifically. Of course, much of the 'science' in Trek is utter crap and only an excuse for alegorical plots that comment on human behavior, with aliens as stand-in as certain types of human cultures... but still, denying such a basic fact of biology would be too much even for Trek.