Lets make Reptilian Race for Fantasy/Scifi

Not sure where to put this, so general for now. 

In any case, we have had stories with reptilian peoples, namly lizard folk, for a while. From conspiracy theories to video games to novels. And since we have all manner of non humans in our fictional spacess ranging from avian, amphibian, and space seemingly all female humanoids that want to learn of this concept called "love" in our fiction, lets look at these guys.

So lets see what makes them work in writing, and if we want, what would we need on an evolutionary path that takes them from the pet store tanks to vast civilization. And while lizard people are probably what we are all thinking off, lets also see if we can do snake folk, turtle folk, dino folk, and maybe proto mammals. 

Note: This is for funsies, I am not an evolutionary biologist and, just a guy looking to have some fun with a common trope/cliche and how to make it work. Lets se what our collective watching of animal planet has shown us.

Popular species in this area include but not limited to: Gorn (Star Trek), Trandoshans (star wars), Angorians (Elder Scrolls), The Visitors (V), Saurian (Mortal Komat) and the titular brothers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.



So where to start?

A good place is probably what they would need to make a society work, ranging from hunter gathers to vast cities. In this case, Intelligence, communication, sociability, ability to take care of young long term, and tool use would be a good idea to start.

Intelligence is already something a number of reptiles can do. Tengues and monitors have been studied to problem solve. Crocodilians like Salt Water Crocodiles and Alligators will watch prey and figure out their habits to better prepare to attack them better. Alot of them have their favorite humans and understand their names. And Bearded dragons have learned to wave at people be seeing humans and other beardies do it. I have seen a box turtle I had climb ontop of its hiding log, jump off, flip itself over, and do it all again, and blow bubbles in its soak dish for what I can only describe as fun.

So it doesn't take much for me to think that if we get them to the point of a Lizardman or Yuan-Ti in D&D to be as smart as the average human. 

Tool use might be something that would have to be learned as I don't think we have seen any yet in our present living assortment of animals, but this one is easily handwavable with the territory.


The parent raising...well this one could use some work. Most lay their eggs in a nest or a pile of leaves or some other place and just abandon them. And of course there are the ones that would eat their young.

 Yet, even here we have some exceptions to the rule. Most crocodilian mothers are on par with mother bears when it comes to protecting their young. They will guard their nest ferociously, and when they hear the young chirping (often times before they have even hatched), they will gently use their mouths to help them out of the eggs and carry them to the water. While most male crocodiles are deadbeat dads at best, and active predators of baby crocks at worse, Gharials are an active part of their young's lives to the point an award winning photo of one was taken with hundreds of his babies riding his back.

In Australia, an animal that is not actively trying to kill you called the Shinglback Skink also have this. The females don't have many offspring, so they put in lots of time and energy caring for the young to the point that even in adulthood the young keep their territories close to hers and hang out every now and then.
So take this further and you could have some decent chance of seeing the next generation not end up on the food chain of every predator once the babies strt hatching. 

This leads to sociability, communication, and language. Language can evolve, and plenty of reptiles are social enough. I mentioned bearded dragons learning to wave, and crocodilians tend to congregate in large groups. They also are known to give each other piggy back rides for reasons that are lost to scientist, but suspect makes the animals happy. They also have a number of growls and calls that are at a level we humans can't hear, but they can. Not that we need to: Come mating season, they use these sounds to show off by making the water pretty much dance on their backs. A number of snakes hang around others of their kind, especially when it comes time to hibernate, and so on.

SO why haven't we seen something like this in the real world?

Well to steel a line from youtuber Ronanoke Gaming (he looks at movies and video games and sees how something could have evolved that way, or since he does molecular biology how a parasite, bacteria, and or viruses could have caused something like this). That line is "Good Enough Nature" where nature does the equivalent of it aint broke don't fix it. Why do humans still have Appendixes, tonsils, and wisdom teeth if we don't use them? Good enough, why worry abbot t? Why do manatees still have toenails on their flippers? Good enough for now. Why do dolphins and whales have hands in their skeletons? Good enough. 

Eventually these things disappear, we have humans born without wisdom teeth (I was not one of those lucky few) but it is some times easier not to focus on aspects that don't need to change as much over areas that do when getting genetics that work from one generation to another. Or you have a winning body plan, why shake things up (hence the general look and build of crocodilians or say the great white shark). Usually something has to push nature along to fill in niches, and if an animal is already comfortable there then little has to change. Too comfortable, and any drastic changes to an area can spell doom to a species, but overal reptiles have been doing well in their current forms for millions of years of evelution because it just works.




 Starting to get sleepy, need to think more. What are your thoughts on this, and how would you make your race of reptilians?