These Aliens Are BOTH Mammals and Reptiles...?

hey guys what's up tyler here and welcome to another episode of alien biology so star trek as a franchise is quite interesting when it comes to its approach to depicting alien creatures there's plenty of bizarre and exotic forms that we see throughout the series but most of the aliens that we see are humanoid in appearance for obvious reasons furthermore many of the humanoid races appear to be humans with nothing but nose or forehead ridges but a lot of the aliens that have ample screen time have a much more creative design and the cardassians i think are a perfect example of this the cardassians first introduced in the next generation are heavily featured in star trek deep space nine their government the cardassian union had just occupied bajor for decades at the start of ds9's run and they left a very messy political situation to say the least but while their society culture and politics are very interesting in and of themselves today i want to focus on the cardassians biology and answer some questions that i and other people have had about this unique race so without further ado this is star trek alien biology the cardassians like many of the other humanoid races in the star trek galaxy the cardassians are suggested to have descended from an ancient genetic code seated by humanoid progenitors four and a half billion years ago they're characterized primarily by their light gray skin two thick vertical neck ridges that recede back to the crown of their head and a roughly teardrop shaped ridge in the center of their forehead their facial ridges are thickest right above the eyes resulting in a deep set appearance and being somewhat reminiscent of some of our ancient hominid cousins female cardassians generally have softer ridges as well as a blue coloration in their forehead teardrop an example of sexual dimorphism cardassians generally have straight black hair that graze with age and their blood is red in color presumably utilizing iron-based hemoglobin they also have hearing that is less acute than humans unlike some other races such as the vulcans andorians tellurites orions we don't know exactly which real world star serves as an analog to the cardassian sun but according to star trek star charts cardassia orbits a giant orange star absolute magnitude of minus 1.1 or a hundred times brighter than soul cardassia prime which is what cardassians call their homeworld is also the second planet in an eight planet system it should be noted of course that star charts erroneously depicts cardassia prime as being the sixth planet of the system so the star's absolute magnitude may also be called into question because of its relative closeness to its parent star and the sun's relative brightness it's no wonder that the cardassians enjoy warmer temperatures than many other humanoid species as i mentioned in my alien biology video about the asari from mass effect a planet that orbits the star that outputs redder wavelengths would have vegetation that is darker and browner in color and in fact cardassia prime actually delivers on this front images of cardassia prime depict vegetation that is in fact darker and browner albeit with a slight green tinge and of course on the surface this brown color palette is also replicated in their architecture and their sky is a bright red orange what does all this have to do with cardassian physiology well as you can imagine a species environment has a huge impact on its biology it's one of the foundational principles of darwinian natural selection we are told in various episodes of deep space nine that kardashians do prefer darker warmer and more humid environments compared to humans which has contributed to one of the biggest debates surrounding this species in my experience are the cardassians mammals or reptiles it's a very loaded question the short answer is no neither while there are a lot of recognizably mammalian and reptilian species in star trek not every alien on every planet is going to fit in those neat classifications really the cardassians are best described as just aliens but the long answer is more complicated the connection between cardassians and reptiles has been noted many a time not only by fans but also production staff michael westmore the makeup supervisor on star trek deep space nine and several of the other spin-off series referred to golo set's makeup as akin to a scaly reptilian type armor skin the cardassian's preference for warmer temperatures is also a reptilian trait as reptiles are cold-blooded andrew robinson who played elim garrick on ds9 has made several references to cardassian neuropsychology and likened their brains to the reptilian portion of mammalian brains it's this reptilian brain that gives them in his estimation their sense of boundaries their strict code of justice and their suspicious and aggressive nature cardassian society is organized in a way that values law and order over freedom and equality and consequently their government a military dictatorship holds orwellian control over its population it should be noted though that this wasn't always the case there are plenty of references to a cardassia that used to be more peaceful and democratic when art and culture flourished before authoritarianism likely a response to resource shortages set in to be clear this reptilian brain hypothesis regarding mammalian development is no longer considered to be valid in many scientific circles the original hypothesis developed in the early 1960s by dr paul mclean and popularized by carl sagan's 1977 book the dragons of eden is called the trione brain hypothesis it describes a model of the brain that involves three complexes the reptilian complex or the basal ganglia the paleo-mammalian complex or the limbic system and the neo-mammalian complex or the neocortex the basal ganglia situated in the forebrain are strongly associated with voluntary motor controls procedural and habitual learning eye movement cognition and emotion mclean argued that these traits were dominant in the brains of reptiles and birds and that the reptilian complex was responsible for instinctual behaviors such as aggression dominance territoriality and ritual displays all this is well and good but seemingly reptilian traits do not necessarily a reptilian species make that said memory beta the canon for licensed non-canon works of star trek such as novels games and comics does refer to the kardashians as quasi-reptilian and includes them in the category reptilian races and cultures while this is true the cardassians do clearly possess some traits that are more associated with mammals than reptiles cardassian women have breasts for obvious reasons and while the cardassians ridges do resemble scales somewhat their skin overall is more like human skin than reptilian skin despite the difference in coloration additionally while their behaviors would seem to suggest that they may be cold-blooded this is never explicitly said to be the case it's possible that cardassians do regulate their body temperature and simply have a different threshold for how hot or cold their bodies can get so what's the answer well there is one hypothesis that does make sense to me the cardassians might have evolved from an ancestor that like them possessed both mammalian and reptilian characteristics there are actually some animals in earth history that follow this description as well logically the common ancestor of mammals and reptiles would have shared traits of both early synapsis a clade of amniote tetrapods used to be referred to as mammal-like reptiles although this terminology is now considered outdated as our understanding of mammalian evolution has advanced technically synapsins include modern mammals such as humans the thoraxids were a group of synapsins that evolved about 275 million years ago distinct from reptiles thoraxids include all mammals and their ancestors which bodes well for our investigation one of their defining characteristics is the orientation of their limbs beneath the body as opposed to beside the body which is the configuration seen in reptiles such as lizards and crocodiles their absinthes also include the clade cynodontia which first appeared in the late permian period and gave rise to the mammalian lineage about 225 million years ago there was a non-mammalian lineage of cynodonts tritolodontidae that went extinct about 113 million years ago although these animals were characterized mainly by the shape of their teeth and their herbivorous diets traits that are explicitly not shared by the cardassians as a matter of fact there really is no singular last common ancestor of mammals and reptiles in the fossil record most species that have lived throughout history don't even leave fossils and the ones that do can only give paleontologists so much information to work with this is why this is a field that has been evolving pardon the pun for centuries with this in mind the closest earth animals that i can come up with as an analog to a hypothetical ancestor of the cardassians would be something like biomarsukia early non-mammalian synapsins that had bony protrusions on their foreheads sound familiar these animals evolved from pelicosaurs a group of so-called mammal-like reptiles that used to form their own order but were later reclassified pelicosaurs include the infamous dimetrodon which is a recognizable animal of the permian period it's unclear if the cardassians ancestors ever had full body hair or if their head hair is a more recent development whatever the case it's likely that the cardassians ancestors have always been some form of predator with this and other reptilian traits described by westmore and robinson and others being passed down through generations and forming the basis of cardassian physiology in addition alongside these reptilian traits the cardassians have clearly evolved certain mammalian characteristics as well including the fact that they reproduce via placental viviparity meaning they give life birth viviparity is a trait that is common in mammals but is also technically shared by some other non-mammalian animals such as whale sharks so what's my verdict well again aside from the more accurate description of cardassians as simply just being aliens with no direct analog to any earth animals the best i can come up with is that they are in fact mammal-like reptiles hybrids of sorts and their ancestors would resemble some of the more awkward-looking middle stages of mammalian evolution between the permian reptiles that predated the dinosaurs and the shrew-like beings that gave rise to the line that led to us today life has a very interesting way it seems of developing into all kinds of veritable forms that are uniquely adapted to their environments and it seems that on cardassia these early synapses like predators went out before we end this video i actually want to talk about one other hypothesis regarding cardassian evolution that could turn everything we just went through on its head the cardassians relationship with the more human-looking bajorans may go even deeper than just being an occupying force some believe that the cardassians and the majorans are actually the same species what evidence is there for this theory well cardassians and majorins are two of the only known species in the local galaxy who are capable of reproducing without medical intervention even vulcan human hybrids require some sort of genetic manipulation to help them survive furthermore the bajorans are known to have been capable of faster than light travel since the 16th century which predates the cardassians current wave of expansion a bajoran solar cell actually reached cardassia five light years away around this time meaning first contact predated the occupation by about 700 years some have made the connection between the bajorans and the habitians the first civilization to flourish on cardassia 10 000 years ago and whose artifacts are often uncovered in archaeological expeditions the habitians were incredibly sophisticated they were very spiritual and also possessed solar technology not unlike the majorities according to the ds9 novel avatar artifacts made of jevonite a rare mineral on cardassia have been excavated on bajor and been proven by quantum dating to predate the habitians on cardassia at some point after a major climate disaster the habitians were wiped out by more militant members of their race what if the habitians were actually bajorn colonists and modern cardassians are bajorans who genetically engineered themselves to be better adapted to cardassia's former environment it's a wild theory one that has plenty of holes but the close biological connection between the bajorans and the cardassians can't be ignored in my opinion i don't personally subscribe to this theory though because i think that we need more than just circumstantial evidence to make it more plausible but it is interesting to consider and hey maybe it could be true it would be a nice plot twist regarding the power dynamics between the bajorans and the cardassians proving that the former may have always been more advanced just like the biol on kaminar used to be the prey species before they enslaved the kelpians all in all cardassians have an evolutionary history that is quite unique among some of the other races featured on screen in star trek not quite mammalian not quite reptilian but resembling something in between and conducting the research for this video particularly their resemblance to early synapsids taught me a lot about evolution here on earth thank you all so much for watching i really look forward to hearing your thoughts in the comments about the information i've presented in this video i appreciate everybody who expressed interest in this topic when it was suggested if you want to help decide one of the next species to be featured in this alien biology series then you can participate in the monthly polls on my community tab if you like this video be sure to leave a thumbs up and don't forget to share it that stuff really helps me out and of course if you haven't subscribed what are you doing be sure to do that hit that subscribe button also click the bell icon to receive all notifications so you won't miss future uploads posts etc finally you can support my work further by becoming a youtube member or a patron on patreon links to those as well as my merch store and my social media are in the description below that's about all i have for today thank you all so much for watching once again and i'll see you in the next video live long and prosper so [Music] you

Channel: OrangeRiver

Views: 64,342

Keywords: orange river, orange river productions, anim8orkid, tyler pilkinton, star trek, trek, alien biology, ds9, cardassia, cardassians, bajoran, bajorans, hebitians, dukat, gul dukat, garak, elim garak, deep space 9, deep space nine, tng, the chase, the next generation

Id: yBd9pDN-1ZE

Length: 15min 16sec (916 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 11 2021