Origin of the Species: Rise of the Reptilian Alien Mythos and Its Unlikely Source

In replying to another thread I realized that this reply probably deserved its own thread on this subject since the idea of "Reptilian Aliens" often comes up on ATS.

The following is based on research I did some time ago which the post below reminded me of when asking where the whole Reptilian thing came from. I hope you don't mind me adding some rationality to this subject.

I also hope in the interest of Denying Ignorance this finally puts the Reptilian Alien myth to rest but for the true believer whom UFOlogy is more religion than science, it probably will not.

southern_Guardian
Somebody please enlighten me here.Where did this whole thing of "Reptillians" come from?I hear about them alot.

Personally i find this whole thing of reptillians hard to swallow.Sounds fabricated to me.I really dont think there is any existence of visitation of beings by the name of Reptillians.I dont think they exist.Neither do this "Draco".

Where did this all come from?

It all came from an unlikely source.

Speculation about the evolution of dinosaurs on Earth had the dinosaurs not died out.

Here is the origin of the "Reptilian", and it has nothing to do with "space aliens":

In 1982, Dale Russell, then curator of vertebrate fossils at the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa, conjectured a possible evolutionary path that might have been taken by Troodon had it not perished in the K/T extinction event 65 million years ago, suggesting that it could have evolved into intelligent beings similar in body plan to humans. Over geologic time, Russell noted that there had been a steady increase in the EQ (the relative brain weight when compared to other species with the same body weight) among the dinosaurs. Russell had discovered the first Troodontid skull, and noted that, while its EQ was low compared to humans, it was six times higher than that of other dinosaurs.

If the trend in Troodon evolution had continued to the present, its brain case could by now measure 1,100 cm; comparable to that of a human. Troodontids had semi-manipulative fingers, able to grasp and hold objects to a certain degree, and binocular vision. Russell proposed that this "Dinosauroid", like most dinosaurs of the troodontid family, would have had large eyes and three fingers on each hand, one of which would have been partially opposed.

As with most modern reptiles (and birds), he conceived of its genitalia as internal. Russell speculated that it would have required a navel, as a placenta aids the development of a large brain case. However, it would not have possessed mammary glands, and would have fed its young, as birds do, on regurgitated food. He speculated that its language would have sounded somewhat like a bird song.

Russell's thought experiment has been met with criticism from other paleontologists since the 1980s, many of whom point out that Russell's Dinosauroid is overly anthropomorphic. Gregory S. Paul and Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., consider it "suspiciously human" and Darren Naish has argued that a large-brained, highly intelligent troodontid would retain a more standard theropod body plan, with a horizontal posture and long tail, and would probably manipulate objects with the snout and feet in the manner of a bird, rather than with human-like "hands".

The most common "Reptoid" picture you will find among UFO sites is this one from Russell:




That photo of the "dinosauroid" model and Russell's research was popularized I believe in the 1980s in a fringe science/sci-fi magazine called Omni which often featured UFO stories.

UFO believers took the same "dinosauroid" in Omni and turned it into an "alien species" called the Reptillians.

You will find most "Reptilian" stories only began to be told in the 1980s after that article.

The 80's TV series "V" and the 80's movie "Enemy Mine" which also featured an alien which looked a lot like Russell's dinosauroid further cemented it in the minds of people who often have a hard time separating sci-fi from sci-reality or flat our misunderstood Russell's work.



Indeed, David Icke's "shape shifting" Reptilian lore likely originated from the idea behind "V" that perfectly human looking beings could be hiding a secret that they were actually reptilian aliens. David Icke began leaving the rational world around the same time.

Icke had begun to flirt with fringe medicine and New Age philosophies in the 1980s in an effort to find relief from his arthritis,

Among Icke's outrageous claims is that the Queen of England is one of these Reptilian aliens in human disguise.... Kinda like "V"'s alien leader Diana complete with a photoshopped picture inspired by the 80's sci-fi series:



New Age people came up with a whole story and history behind the "Reptilians" and even seemingly gave them a point of origin: The Constellation Draco. Hence the name often repeated "Draco Reptilian" for this mythical species.

Draco is Latin for dragon so it's easy to see why the New Age crowd would choose this as the "point of origin" for these aliens. Sometimes, Draco is represented as the demon son of Gaia (The Earth Goddess) so these Reptilian aliens of course had to be evil and up to no good on Earth.

One problem (well besides the whole lack of actual evidence that intelligent Reptilian exist thing) is that Draco and all Constellations are not actually places in space.

They are just places on our Earth's view of the sky. The stars within these constellations have no positional or evolutionary relationship and are often separated by hundreds and thousands of light years.

We see them as figures, animals, people, etc due to our mind's tendency to want to make random patterns, such as those of stars in the sky seem organized according to known, familiar objects.

This is called Pareidolia and explains why people often find shapes in clouds (or the face of Jesus in a potato chip, or "android heads" and "mice" as well as other objects in Mars rocks).

Basically our sky was organized by early astronomers who had no idea how far apart these stars were from each other at the time based on Pareidolia.

This is best demonstrated in this video I put together showing what the constellations look like from a perspective of 100 light years away:



Of course the New Age people didn't know this and their error has been reprinted in many books, magazines and reposted on forums such as ATS. What more could one expect from people well versed in the pseudoscience of Astrology but mostly ignorant of the science of Astronomy beyond a few basic facts?

So the legend, myth etc of the "Draco Reptilians" was born.

And the rest is history.



By the way....You'll often see a cropped versions of the above picture on UFO/Alien believer cult sites like this one called Starseeds and others.

If you run into a Reptilian Alien they're more likely to be coming from Central Casting or heading out to a Halloween party than one of the stars in the Draco Constellation and nothing you should be afraid of.

Dinosaurs lived for over 250 million years, it seems like they had plenty of time to evolve into higher forms before the k/T event. If they did evolve how would we know?

LDragonFire
Dinosaurs lived for over 250 million years, it seems like they had plenty of time to evolve into higher forms before the k/T event. If they did evolve how would we know?

Fossilized Bones. Plain and simple. The same way we know they existed at all.

reply to post by JadeStar


Is the girl pictured in link meant to be reptile in human disguise?

Most likely by their leftover fossilized remains.

I think the seeds to this mythology go back even further with the 1970s TV Show titled Land of the Lost.

In this series, there were a species of evolved dinosauroids, similar the thought experiment you detailed, called the Sleestaks:

Sleestak
I found this full episode from the series on Youtube that should portray the Sleestak character:


We can thus see the emergence of a humanoid reptilian in the collective conscious, and trace its growing popularity in Fringe Mythology proportional to earlier media trends.




ETA: Something to take note of concerning the Land of the Lost series that should be obvious to many is that it takes many of its cues from the SLOW REPTILE philosophy still in majority public consciousness in application to dinosaurs.

Since then, we've improved on that model in advancing warm blooded, faster dinosaurs.

AliceBleachWhite

I think the seeds to this mythology go back even further with the 1970s TV Show titled Land of the Lost.

In this series, there were a species of evolved dinosauroids, similar the thought experiment you detailed, called the Sleestaks:

Sleestak
I found this full episode from the series on Youtube that should portray the Sleestak character:

We can thus see the emergence of a humanoid reptilian in the collective conscious, and trace its growing popularity in Fringe Mythology proportional to earlier media trends.

Well done Alice!! Thank you for that! I did not know about Land of the Lost or the Sleestaks!

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


Why go to the 70s when the 90s had better information and technology




as far as origins my brain is still shot from learning elsewhere on another thread but still nice to see you around and please don't take my monster bat

LOL David Icke researcher eh stacked full of belief bias and television quality spin, reminds me of a sport fan that will rattle off a bunch of numbers that has no clue on math just understands one number is better then the other cause hes number one baby whoaaaa!

JadeStar


Well done Alice!!

Thank you for that! I did not know about Land of the Lost or the Sleestaks!

There's plenty other humanoid reptile characters in earlier media as well, just not as prolific as a TV series, or blockbuster movie.

We've, for instance, Kirk vs. Gorn in Star Trek. I'm not sure the air date of that episode, but, the series aired from 1966 - 1969. This would predate the Sleestak.



There might be earlier humanoid reptilians depicted in the Lost in Space, or other early Science Fiction and Fantasy TV series.

Certainly there's evidence of these archetypes in comic books as well.

When did Spiderman originally fight the Lizardman on paper?

Did any of the Conan the Barbarian stories involve lizardmen? I think the first Conan the Barbarian movie with Arnold S. had a Magic Priest guy that turned into a giant snake? That was in 1982 though.

It'd be interesting to trace this Archetype across all the media outlets in Comics, Cartoons, Written Fiction, Movies, and anything else to see how far back the concept of Lizard People goes in the public consciousness and compare that to the popularity and/or mention of lizard-like ET in the UFO culture.

I think this is a fantastic thread. Bravo! S&F.

To build off of the above posters reply and entertain into hypothesis and thought experiment -

What if...

Dinosaurs did evolve into an advanced species 100,000,000 millions years ago, and left this planet eons ago to escape some apocalyptic event that re-terraforms the Earth to begin anew. Suppose they left to solar systems uncharted and unknown?

This is after all, a great likelyhood, in our own future. Small manned missions to colonize the moon or Mars. In hopes of ensuring the survivability of our own race? If it isn't...well shouldn't it? I mean' no one really knows the time or hour. A super volcano could blow, a missed asteroid hit.... It's all a game a chance - life. Fickle and ever changing. No knowing when the human race goes the way of the dinosaurs.

There is also lore and tales of reptilian beings that are ancient in origin - naga and many deities worldwide were of the reptilian nature. Right up to the Serpent in Eden. Some of which trans versed the skies in fiery chariots.

Yet all that aside - I certainly enjoyed your overview of Reptilian humanoids - but I like the what it's more than resting my certainty upon one hypothesis. Cause when it comes down to it - I want to believe there is something more. That we are not the highest evolved life form in this universe. Because that truly, in my own very frail, human understandings of the meaning of it all... is a very frightening thought indeed.

CdT

AliceBleachWhite

JadeStar


Well done Alice!!

Thank you for that! I did not know about Land of the Lost or the Sleestaks!

There's plenty other humanoid reptile characters in earlier media as well, just not as prolific as a TV series, or blockbuster movie.

We've, for instance, Kirk vs. Gorn in Star Trek. I'm not sure the air date of that episode, but, the series aired from 1966 - 1969. This would predate the Sleestak.

There might be earlier humanoid reptilians depicted in the Lost in Space, or other early Science Fiction and Fantasy TV series.

Certainly there's evidence of these archetypes in comic books as well.

When did Spiderman originally fight the Lizardman on paper?

Did any of the Conan the Barbarian stories involve lizardmen? I think the first Conan the Barbarian movie with Arnold S. had a Magic Priest guy that turned into a giant snake? That was in 1982 though.

It'd be interesting to trace this Archetype across all the media outlets in Comics, Cartoons, Written Fiction, Movies, and anything else to see how far back the concept of Lizard People goes in the public consciousness and compare that to the popularity and/or mention of lizard-like ET in the UFO culture.

Start with venture magazine in the 1950s American version, getting ahold of a copy isnt easy but its there

Dinosaurs did evolve into an advanced species 100,000,000 millions years ago, and left this planet eons ago to escape some apocalyptic event that re-terraforms the Earth to begin anew. Suppose they left to solar systems uncharted and unknown?

reply to post by CirqueDeTruth


From my understanding dinosaurs didn't quite survive there ELE, and apparently people trying to convince me that they turned into birds or something like that. If it took so long for a species to change into another species but this "race" left early on how did they have the dexterity to build the required systems to just get up and go especially without any prior research or a plan? I think that reptilians is kind of a fairy tale entertaining but kind of silly.

CirqueDeTruth
I think this is a fantastic thread. Bravo! S&F.

To build off of the above posters reply and entertain into hypothesis and thought experiment -

What if...

Dinosaurs did evolve into an advanced species 100,000,000 millions years ago, and left this planet eons ago to escape some apocalyptic event that re-terraforms the Earth to begin anew. Suppose they left to solar systems uncharted and unknown?

This is after all, a great likelyhood, in our own future.
CdT

But we're not planning on digging up all of our dead to take with us to the stars if we ever were to leave.

Basically for there to have been intelligent, space-faring dinos which somehow evaded our detection they would have had to have taken all their dead with them.

Otherwise we'd likely have a fossil of one. As prolific as the dinosaurs were we have no evidence they ever evolved brain capacity anywhere close to ours.

reply to post by JadeStar


If they lived in the inner earth where its hot we would never find their skeletons.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Surely there is evidence of burrowing in like massive mounds, or is that how we explain volcanos

reply to post by Brotherman

Surely there is evidence of burrowing in like massive mounds, or is that how we explain volcanos o

reports of Ufos going in and out of volcanoes. There reptiliians going into inner earth.

CirqueDeTruth
I
Yet all that aside - I certainly enjoyed your overview of Reptilian humanoids - but I like the what it's more than resting my certainty upon one hypothesis. Cause when it comes down to it - I want to believe there is something more. That we are not the highest evolved life form in this universe. Because that truly, in my own very frail, human understandings of the meaning of it all... is a very frightening thought indeed.

CdT

Thanks. I highly doubt we're the most advanced species in the Milky Way galaxy much less the universe but this is speculation without any evidence so far.

I do think it is likely that if life and intelligence are common in the universe then we'll have the evidence that we aren't alone nor the highest life form within my lifetime as we're getting better and better at developing search strategies for anyone who may be out there.

There's so much exciting stuff going on in the fields of astrobiology and exoplanets that I don't need to believe in human looking nefarious reptilians when the truth may wind up being far stranger than that fiction.

watch



indeed why have we never seen him in a natural science museum

AthlonSavage
reply to post by Brotherman

 

Surely there is evidence of burrowing in like massive mounds, or is that how we explain volcanos o

reports of Ufos going in and out of volcanoes. There reptiliians going into inner earth.

reports of UFO activity around volcanoes is a large leap to make if you are suggesting that reptilian earth people are the pilots, why would a sub-terrainean life form need a flying machine?

reply to post by JadeStar


it dont matter if reptilians came about as an evolutionary idea, the point is that with the size of the universe and the countless planets out there there is probably a race of reptilians or something similar out there