The idea of these constantly running around the station causing problems really added depth to DS9 and that something was always happening offscreen, like how Morn wouldnt shut up.
I was thinking along this line as well. We share some physical similarities with species that we are only distantly related to, it stands to reason it would happen on other worlds too.
The fact Cardassians are outwardly tetrapod while the voles are Hexapods also suggests one of two scenarios. The Cardassians are descended from a 6-legged lineage and two of their limbs became vestigial like human tail bones. Or the shared characteristics date further back in the evolutionary tree when tetrapod and hexapod Cardassian fauna split from one another. Which actually backs up the Cardassians claims of not being genetically related.
@ShoeUnited That phrase still irks me every time I see/hear it, even though it’s about a fictional species. I think it’s because of its explicitly racist use in the series, so when people use it, it seems to me that they just don’t care how their words and actions affect other people. I can only hope they restrict their apathy for how they affect others to the fictional realm
The purpose of the headspoon is never outright explained, so my theories are either a)Since Cardasians prefer hotter climates like deserts (Gul Dukat once remarked while looking for his daughter that the desert planet they were on was pleasant other than the bright sun), it may serve as a way to regulate body tempature. Maybe instead of sweating, blood pumps through the headspoon and other flesh ridges to allow the blood to radiate off excess body heat before returning to the rest of their body. b)It is a form of sensory organ like a type of externalized ear that subtlety detects pressure waves, or electromagnetic fields. Maybe not to the effect that it is a primary sense like sight or sound, but to the effect that it gives them a slight edge in seeing things in the dark places that both species live.
My guess is for the spoon crest is, that it has something to do with the type of light detection, like how some animals have a third eye on the top of the head that detects infrared light or UV, as a way to regulate sleep cycles or detect light that normal eyes can not see.
I thought the the spoon-shaped feature turned blue on Cardassian females when they go into estrus (males have the same feature like human males have nipples). Or did I just imagine that? 🤷♂️
My guess is, that it has something to do with the type of light detection, like how some animals have a third eye on the top of the head that detects infrared light or UV, as a way to regulate sleep cycles or detect light that normal eyes can not see.
I was thinking the same thing, perhaps infrared like a viper, but as they became more omnivorous, they gradually lost the ability but the socket never went away entirely.
The headspoons function as parietal eyes - as is seen in some earth's reptiles, amphibians and fish species. They may be photo- (possibly particularly infrared-) receptive (the latter would be useful in dark environments). In humanoid cardassians, it's actual presence is retained through sexual selection (physical feature attraction) while it's function has probably evolutionarily degraded. The voles (and other cardassian life with these headspoons) have purposeful functionality for this extra receptor. That's my take on it.
They're literally rats painted a new color to fit in a space setting. On a sailing vessel anywhere in history, rats used to be major issues for the exact reasons these "voles" are: They compromised food stores, damaged valuable equipment (chewing through ropes and spare sails) and were next to impossible to eradicate once on board - even if only a few managed to hide in the tiniest of spaces (between walls, in a hollow rafter, behind the captain's private wine collection) they would repopulate. And sea travel spread the rats wherever we went, be it other continents or small islands cut off from any outside influence for millions of years... They're the reason a lot of the rare island species died out - they weren't used to the evolutionary pressure from aggressive small omnivores and were quickly erased or out-competed by the rats.
Theory: Voles are to Cardassians as Chimpanzees are to Humans. A relatively close shared ancestor and genetically similar enough that testing on one is about as close as you can get to testing on the other without breaking even the loosest of testing laws.
Wouldn't *rodents to humans* be a more accurate comparison given how the reason why lab mice are a thing is because they are among the genetically closest non-primate animals to humans. And Earth voles are a type of rodent.
@@stevemanart ; Well what if on Cardassia there is an ape like animal with a spoon-imprint on it's head. A Cardassian rodent should equal an Earth rodent, taxonomically speaking.
It would be interesting to see the evolutionary process that would have enabled one species to have four limbs and one to have six. Given our knowledge of species on Earth, the fact one has a different number of limbs would seem to indicate they are not closely related at all (unless Cardassians have two vestigial limbs near their abdomens, which would be interesting in itself)
They could have a common ancestor. Just because humans exist doesn't mean primates don't. No reason that wouldn't be the case on other worlds. Also if you want to get rid of them evacuate the decks they are on, pull all the air out and lower the temp to as close as possible to space ambient. Then bombard the decks with some manner of radiation and, failing that, a baryon sweep should do it. Since it does terrible things to organic matter it would be more than enough to fry the little boogers.
Remember the Precursors. They seeded many planets, even leaving a message encoded in DNA. I can imagine them modifying a colony of Proto-Voles to evolve into Cardassians. The "spoons" were left intact because, at the time, they may have been important sensory organs; like the infrared sensing pits on most snakes. Half a billion years later and the spoon is still there, even if it no longer serves a purpose.
@@christopherg2347 I would suppose the voles spoon is still useful, given their primitive state. I wonder if the Cardies spoons are active as well. That would explain that weird head gear they wore in TNG's early episodes. Possibly some sort of AR and/or communication device.
@@redapol5678 Limbs are a pretty huge energy waste. The crest? A lot less waste. Propably not enough to warant it being selected out. There are some *very* questionable designs still in use on earth to this day: ua-cam.com/video/5KNlsJP95BQ/v-deo.html
Dude I've _told_ you already... just reconfigure your deflector to emit an inverse tachyon matrix every time you detect a tetryon pulse of over 0.3 cochranes and your EPS relay will run sweeter than syrup of squill.
Evolution (as far as we know) tends to stick to what works, especially when it comes to symmetry. If one mammal has six appendages, other mammals will also tend to have six appendages. Which raises the question: why would Cardassians have four appendages, when their distant evolutionary cousins have six? This looks like a case where imagination ran counter to consistency. 🙂
maybe, the area of the stunted extra limbs is in a part of the body considered shameful, I believe we do not have any pictures of Cardassians without cloths, so we would not technically know what non-functional protrusions may exist on there bodies... my own feeling in fact was always that Cardassians were not mammals but originally a derivative of intelligent water-reptiles, thus, it is quite possible (& I imagine they do) have a belly and dorsal fins
I agree. I would take it that the two species are not closely related at all given the number of limbs. The Cardassians could possibly have two vestigial limbs near their abdomens though, so that would be interesting to look at in itself if that were the case. But given there is no mention of them nor indication of them in their clothing design, I would lean towards Cardassians only having four limbs, not six
@@AtlantiansGaming it’s possible (pretty much anything is in sci fi 🤣). Still would be interesting why their genes overrode the six limbs but not the spoon shaped crest
Maybe the “headspoon” is just a specific trait that formed from the basic common ancestors of all life on cardassia, which in turn could mean that the cardassian vole and cardassians are long distant cousins, it probably is a gland or some kind, like beluga whales maybe? Cause they are kinda reptilian and some reptiles have glands like that too
If the spoon is not a trait found among all animals of Cardassia, similar to the two eyes of mammals, lizards, birds, and others then I believe the Cardassia Sapiens and the Voles share a common ancestor as we do not know the purpose of them yet
i believe the "spoons" on the heads of certain Cardassian species to be vestigial primitive sensing organs, most likely to have functioned similar to sonar, that were likely necessary at an earlier time on that world, before changes in visible spectrum light radiation favored the development of true eyes. They would still exist now in the genetic code but non-use weakens them more with every generation, to the point that they are about as useful as a human appendix.
humans and earth rodents share a (relatively) recent common ancestor so it’s not unreasonable for cardassians and voles to have some superficial resemblance to each other. i agree with other comments that the “spoon” might be a kind of vestigial parietal “eye” like the one found in some earth reptiles; that said, i have no idea why they have six limbs, or, since the cardassians don’t (as far as we know), which body plan is ancestral and which is divergent.
@@MandalorV7 DS9 had a lot of tribbles at one point and then they all disappeared by the next episode. Between the voles and Worf they probably didn't survive the day.
The link is that if you go far enough back in the cardassian evolutionary chain, then all life forms on their planet share a single common ancestor. just like on Earth with humans and rodents.
Maybe the spoon gas something to do with moisture retention or it helps them sense energy fields. Maybe the Cardies lost this ability at some point in their evolution but kept the spoon.
@@kfcroc18 I don’t know, that was the only thing I could of to explain it. Maybe Cardassians do have smaller, probably unusable limbs somewhere on their bodies, we’ve never seen a Cardassian below the neck!
@@mb2000 Maybe the Vole didn't come from Card butt from a planet they colonized early in their history. And now they are just associated. The spoon could be a coincidence.
I always thought Cardassians were clearly supposed to be an evolution of reptiles, given multiple references on DS9 as well as the clear cobra like design of their neck ridges and their like of a warmer climate.
they most likely didn't always have the spoon crest .. i think at some point in Cardassia's history they were genetically modified for either a medical purpose or as bioweapon's for sabotage .
But both were on DS9 and only one was mentioned as still being on the station after a single episode. Obviously Voles breed more effectively than tribbles, even if they breed less often.. Also I should point out that as mentioned in this video, Voles are likely omnivorous. I think we can safely guess what happened to all the tribbles on the station.
Most earth animals have something resembling a third eye. This can vary from a fully functioning light sensing organ to a patch of skin that is slightly photosensitive. This is situated on the spot of the mystica third eye, approximately the same spot as the cardassian spoon. This is also one of the last places where the gill-ridges join, if I remember correctly the same ridge that forms the eye sockets. I believe it is why tall men tend to have a small divot there. So there is a comparable analog in terrestrial biology. It could be. Remnant of this, or another vestigial organ. If the vole prefers energy dense locations, perhaps it's a magnetoreceptor? Would also explain the spoon shape, as this is helpfull in focussing input (proto-eyes were just that: an indentation)
Maybe the head-spoon is a sensory organ of some sort? We know that Cardassians don't hear very well, so maybe the head-spoon compensates for that in some way? It may be sensitive to vibration and allow them to identify the direction of a noise.
eh unless those life signs are very distinct you might end up beaming off beings other then voles. also pretty sure transporters in star trek have fail safes to prevent that kind of usage.
@@saqwana25 Well it is all made up and I was joking but you are right it would depend on the accuaracy of the scan. You wouldn't need to beam them off, beam them to a holding cell, check you have only voles, then dispose of them as you wish. Convert them to energy to power the replicators, replicated food tastes weird anyway :D
Makes you wonder how far Earth rats have gotten. Along with equivalent species from other planets. Because if the age exploration is any indication you know it's happened.
Back in the day I saw the crew crawling around in the maintenance tunnels for these things without even kneepads and said "Why don't they bring in some nonanthropomorphic aliens to scurry around the tunnels after them?" A quadrupedal alien race or a much smaller sapient biped race could make a good contribution to the Federation by dealing with all the work that needs to be done in these ergonomic nightmare tunnels. Bonus points if the maintenance race is carnivorous and can just eat the voles.
Wasn't there an episode that had Quark being confronted by Sisko for trying to start vole races that Quark blamed on Morn? As far as multiple species from the same world having the same features, look at the Xindi There might be more but I'm not sure
Head-spoons are a case of adaptive mimicry. Look like the young of a known apex creature, and you might get left alone because mama might be nearby to eat any would-be predator. Probably whatever predecessors the Cardassians themselves had were just as ugly as the voles.
Seriously... scan for their life forms, and teleport them into a holding facilty, or into space. This is an easy thing to do, and surprised why Obrian didn’t try this.
I would assume from an external logic perspective, the spoon noggins are meant to directly link them visually with Cardassians. Then I would assume from an internal logic perspective, the spoon noggins may be a common evolutionary trait among many lifeforms of a certain kingdom or clade among Cardassia; Cardassians are typically said to be 'reptilian,' but they obviously display mammalian traits, suggesting they may actually be along the lines of a synapsid. This may be a common clade among Cardassia. So just as Earth rats share basic mammalian features with us, Cardassian voles share traits with Cardassian hominids.
Mammalian reptiles existed on Earth at one time. Mammals and reptilians eventually diverged after several extinction events. Perhaps Cardassia saw fewer cataclysms. Clearly Cardassians have both mammalian and reptilian traits and voles share some of those features. I imagine the Progenitors seeded voles with their humanoid genetic code and eons later, Cardassians appear as humanoid voles - the only tetrapods on their world (vestigial limbs no doubt). Makes me wonder what animals the Progenitors seeded on Qo'noS or Ferenginar.
I can't remember where I read or saw this - probably a DS9 novel - but the spoon thingy is a bit like a human Navel. i.e. where the little crotch goblin attaches to its progenitor. YMMV.
Whether its cardassians/voles or human/mice, if they originated from the same planet they share the same genetic material but if couple this with environmental stressors on cardasa prime could explain similar characteristics.
Next Combat pet is the Vole. Beam them over to an enemy ship to cause a DOT to all ship consoles and equipment causing them fail randomly. DOT duration is 3 days, 6 days for players. After cool down, 50% chance to reinfect the ship again. 5% chance to infect other ships in social zones. :-)
I wonder if any Klingon tactics for killing tribbles would apply... Oh that just had me wonder what happened when DS9 had the tribble infestation, were the inhabitants actually cheering for the voles that killed the tribbles?
If I were the captain (or should that be Gul) of a ship with a vole infestation, my solution would be to put all the crew in space suits and then turn off life support, all the voles will die and the automatic maintenance system will clean up the bodies.
Actually, come to think of it this could be why DS9 had such a problem with them, they could hardly close the station or provide every guest with space suits just to deal with pests.
Dax- "Who's Winning the War?" Quark- "It's to soon to tell!" Quark- "They found a nest!" Dax- "That's Good!" Quark- "It's not the main Nest!" Dax- "That's not so good!" Dax- "I thought Chief O'Brien trapped the last vole on the station four months ago!" Quark- "Well he missed a couple, a married couple. They breed like tribbles! Dax- "But they're not as cute." Quark- "They're ravenous creatures and I want them gone!"
Why do Cardassians and Cardassian Voles share the head spoons? My guess is they're sexy. Much like how on Earth, female birds find bright and elaborate plumage attractive, it could be that the head spoons are a display organ used to attract a mate. It is worth mentioning that female Cardassian's spoons have a blue pigment to them. I wouldn't be surprised if the female voles also were more blue. I also wouldn't be surprised if other Cardassian species had these traits, like the riding hound Tain talks about with Garak.
LOL my high school teacher shut down my Vole fights. Got suspended for it. You'd think she would be cool w/ it given she is a Ferangi! And yes she wears clothes!
Probably because the Cardassian transporters aren’t that good. Still they had three Starfleet transporters on the runabouts they could have used (and the Defiant at the time of the Tribble).
They are basically an ugly version of the tribble. Only this one won't get a Shot Trek about itself...although seeing Quark chase these things around his bar for fifteen minutes would be hilarious. Also, the "spoon" is probably the organ which they use the sense out magnetic fields and help navigate dark areas. It would make since with Cardassia having a darker star than our yellow sun. The Cardassians have it too, but probably less sensitive due to their more intelligent nature.
Probably, if 6 limbs is the normal for species on Cardassia. But to many sci-fi series just use 6 limbs to show that it is an "alien" animal for the reason that it makes them weird looking, without looking at what that would mean for the design of the humanoids of that world. The worst example of this is Avatar (the dances with smurfs ripoff, not the awesome animated series), where every single species is shown with a double forelimb arrangement, except the Navi, who are just big blue cat people.
From a world-building standpoint and an evolutionary one, it makes no sense to have tetrapod and sextapod back-boned animals. If two types crawl out of the sea, they are bound to fight it out until one displaces the other. Besides, four arms would make the Cardassians look even more alien, as opposed to simple make up and masks.
@@JLAvey It's also possible the Preservers messing around with genetics just pre-determined them to be tetrapods, despite the native wildlife being Hexapods.
The idea of these constantly running around the station causing problems really added depth to DS9 and that something was always happening offscreen, like how Morn wouldnt shut up.
They are not space rats. Think about it:
- love warm, dark spaces
- eat about anything
- chew on cables
They are naked Space Racoons!
Imagine the discussions when the cardassians spoke to humans "yeah we had those on earth too, we called them trash pandas"
yes YES MAN THING, WE WILL CHEW CHEW AND LEAVE YOU POWERLESS!!
@@JeanLucCaptain (aims phaser)
No!
@@Corvus__ YES YES!!! WE NEED WARPSTONE! YOU GIVE US DILITHIUM!!!!
@@JeanLucCaptain (lethal phaser sounds)
NO! BAD SPACE RAT!
Cardies and Cardy voles probably share an ancient ancestor much like how humans and mice are both mammals and share a more ancient ancestor.
I was thinking along this line as well. We share some physical similarities with species that we are only distantly related to, it stands to reason it would happen on other worlds too.
The fact Cardassians are outwardly tetrapod while the voles are Hexapods also suggests one of two scenarios. The Cardassians are descended from a 6-legged lineage and two of their limbs became vestigial like human tail bones.
Or the shared characteristics date further back in the evolutionary tree when tetrapod and hexapod Cardassian fauna split from one another. Which actually backs up the Cardassians claims of not being genetically related.
@ShoeUnited That phrase still irks me every time I see/hear it, even though it’s about a fictional species. I think it’s because of its explicitly racist use in the series, so when people use it, it seems to me that they just don’t care how their words and actions affect other people. I can only hope they restrict their apathy for how they affect others to the fictional realm
The best laid plans of Cards and values.
The purpose of the headspoon is never outright explained, so my theories are either
a)Since Cardasians prefer hotter climates like deserts (Gul Dukat once remarked while looking for his daughter that the desert planet they were on was pleasant other than the bright sun), it may serve as a way to regulate body tempature. Maybe instead of sweating, blood pumps through the headspoon and other flesh ridges to allow the blood to radiate off excess body heat before returning to the rest of their body.
b)It is a form of sensory organ like a type of externalized ear that subtlety detects pressure waves, or electromagnetic fields. Maybe not to the effect that it is a primary sense like sight or sound, but to the effect that it gives them a slight edge in seeing things in the dark places that both species live.
"Are there any secret Klingon phrases I should know or do we just leap on each other like a pair of crazedvoles?"
In other words, these things are basically extrasolar rats. 😀
Exactly what I was thinking.
My guess is for the spoon crest is, that it has something to do with the type of light detection, like how some animals have a third eye on the top of the head that detects infrared light or UV, as a way to regulate sleep cycles or detect light that normal eyes can not see.
I thought the the spoon-shaped feature turned blue on Cardassian females when they go into estrus (males have the same feature like human males have nipples). Or did I just imagine that? 🤷♂️
@@roy1701d I thought it was just makeup
Haha same thing I said.
Also could be scent processing or infrared.
Could the spoon be a sensory organ, perhaps one that is vestigial in cardassians
My guess is, that it has something to do with the type of light detection, like how some animals have a third eye on the top of the head that detects infrared light or UV, as a way to regulate sleep cycles or detect light that normal eyes can not see.
I was thinking the same thing, perhaps infrared like a viper, but as they became more omnivorous, they gradually lost the ability but the socket never went away entirely.
The puppet DS9 used for the vole is "funny-bad" 🤣
The headspoons function as parietal eyes - as is seen in some earth's reptiles, amphibians and fish species. They may be photo- (possibly particularly infrared-) receptive (the latter would be useful in dark environments). In humanoid cardassians, it's actual presence is retained through sexual selection (physical feature attraction) while it's function has probably evolutionarily degraded. The voles (and other cardassian life with these headspoons) have purposeful functionality for this extra receptor. That's my take on it.
They're literally rats painted a new color to fit in a space setting. On a sailing vessel anywhere in history, rats used to be major issues for the exact reasons these "voles" are: They compromised food stores, damaged valuable equipment (chewing through ropes and spare sails) and were next to impossible to eradicate once on board - even if only a few managed to hide in the tiniest of spaces (between walls, in a hollow rafter, behind the captain's private wine collection) they would repopulate. And sea travel spread the rats wherever we went, be it other continents or small islands cut off from any outside influence for millions of years... They're the reason a lot of the rare island species died out - they weren't used to the evolutionary pressure from aggressive small omnivores and were quickly erased or out-competed by the rats.
you have the stations , you get the voles!
Theory: Voles are to Cardassians as Chimpanzees are to Humans. A relatively close shared ancestor and genetically similar enough that testing on one is about as close as you can get to testing on the other without breaking even the loosest of testing laws.
Wouldn't *rodents to humans* be a more accurate comparison given how the reason why lab mice are a thing is because they are among the genetically closest non-primate animals to humans. And Earth voles are a type of rodent.
@@occultatumquaestio5226 We only use rodents nowadays because its illegal to test on chimps anymore. So, no. My point still stands.
@@stevemanart ; Well what if on Cardassia there is an ape like animal with a spoon-imprint on it's head. A Cardassian rodent should equal an Earth rodent, taxonomically speaking.
Rats breed and reach maturity quickly along with being very easy to keep. Chimps are the opposite in every way.
It would be interesting to see the evolutionary process that would have enabled one species to have four limbs and one to have six. Given our knowledge of species on Earth, the fact one has a different number of limbs would seem to indicate they are not closely related at all (unless Cardassians have two vestigial limbs near their abdomens, which would be interesting in itself)
They could have a common ancestor. Just because humans exist doesn't mean primates don't. No reason that wouldn't be the case on other worlds. Also if you want to get rid of them evacuate the decks they are on, pull all the air out and lower the temp to as close as possible to space ambient. Then bombard the decks with some manner of radiation and, failing that, a baryon sweep should do it. Since it does terrible things to organic matter it would be more than enough to fry the little boogers.
Remember the Precursors. They seeded many planets, even leaving a message encoded in DNA. I can imagine them modifying a colony of Proto-Voles to evolve into Cardassians. The "spoons" were left intact because, at the time, they may have been important sensory organs; like the infrared sensing pits on most snakes. Half a billion years later and the spoon is still there, even if it no longer serves a purpose.
He did say Voles can "sense" active Technologies EM emission. Not a totally useless trait for a sentient specie to have, depending on the environment.
@@christopherg2347 I would suppose the voles spoon is still useful, given their primitive state. I wonder if the Cardies spoons are active as well. That would explain that weird head gear they wore in TNG's early episodes. Possibly some sort of AR and/or communication device.
The spoon shaped crest is still there but two out of the six limbs are not. That would be an interesting evolutionary line to examine
@@redapol5678 Limbs are a pretty huge energy waste.
The crest? A lot less waste. Propably not enough to warant it being selected out.
There are some *very* questionable designs still in use on earth to this day: ua-cam.com/video/5KNlsJP95BQ/v-deo.html
Dude I've _told_ you already... just reconfigure your deflector to emit an inverse tachyon matrix every time you detect a tetryon pulse of over 0.3 cochranes and your EPS relay will run sweeter than syrup of squill.
Or invert the polarity of your positron flow, IE: MOAR POWER!
@@Lightman0359 as ElectroBOOM would advise, let's just add a *FOOOOOOL BRIDGE RECTIFIER!*
Evolution (as far as we know) tends to stick to what works, especially when it comes to symmetry. If one mammal has six appendages, other mammals will also tend to have six appendages. Which raises the question: why would Cardassians have four appendages, when their distant evolutionary cousins have six? This looks like a case where imagination ran counter to consistency. 🙂
They could have a pair of vestigial limbs similar to our own tailbones
maybe, the area of the stunted extra limbs is in a part of the body considered shameful, I believe we do not have any pictures of Cardassians without cloths, so we would not technically know what non-functional protrusions may exist on there bodies... my own feeling in fact was always that Cardassians were not mammals but originally a derivative of intelligent water-reptiles, thus, it is quite possible (& I imagine they do) have a belly and dorsal fins
I agree. I would take it that the two species are not closely related at all given the number of limbs. The Cardassians could possibly have two vestigial limbs near their abdomens though, so that would be interesting to look at in itself if that were the case. But given there is no mention of them nor indication of them in their clothing design, I would lean towards Cardassians only having four limbs, not six
Or the four limbs itself were the result of the pre-cursors' genetic seed.
@@AtlantiansGaming it’s possible (pretty much anything is in sci fi 🤣). Still would be interesting why their genes overrode the six limbs but not the spoon shaped crest
Maybe the “headspoon” is just a specific trait that formed from the basic common ancestors of all life on cardassia, which in turn could mean that the cardassian vole and cardassians are long distant cousins, it probably is a gland or some kind, like beluga whales maybe? Cause they are kinda reptilian and some reptiles have glands like that too
Another thing to consider is that in real life many vermin carry disease I would imagine that that is quite likely for Cardassian voles as well.
Quark: I think that Doctor T'ana of the USS Cerritos likes me. She left a dead vole on my office doorstep.
If the spoon is not a trait found among all animals of Cardassia, similar to the two eyes of mammals, lizards, birds, and others then I believe the Cardassia Sapiens and the Voles share a common ancestor as we do not know the purpose of them yet
nobly....
don't know why, but that word tickled me in a funny zone
your intro was Shakespearian
To paraphrase Jasper Carrott: “There’s only one way to get rid of a vole. BLOW ITS BLOODY HEAD OFF!”
*that only makes the larger ones angry and more prone to attack you in large numbers and that never ends well*
I wasn't expecting a Jasper Carrott reference on this video I'll be honest lol
@@vocalist92 I’m actually surprised and pleased that some know who he is!
Cost you a night's sleep, mind.
If I ever caught it, I'll bury [the mole] alive!
i believe the "spoons" on the heads of certain Cardassian species to be vestigial primitive sensing organs, most likely to have functioned similar to sonar,
that were likely necessary at an earlier time on that world, before changes in visible spectrum light radiation favored the development of true eyes.
They would still exist now in the genetic code but non-use weakens them more with every generation, to the point that they are about as useful as a human appendix.
The head spoons on the voles is a pretty clever creative choice, so subtle I only noticed it much later after they were introduced.
humans and earth rodents share a (relatively) recent common ancestor so it’s not unreasonable for cardassians and voles to have some superficial resemblance to each other.
i agree with other comments that the “spoon” might be a kind of vestigial parietal “eye” like the one found in some earth reptiles; that said, i have no idea why they have six limbs, or, since the cardassians don’t (as far as we know), which body plan is ancestral and which is divergent.
Maybe they were artificially created for some reason or Genetically Modified.
Don't mind the spoon. I am more curious to know why they have six limbs (not counting the tail) but the Cardassians have only four.
Tails are not limbs
Tell that to a kangaroo
@@chrisinnes2128 The kangaroo may use it like a limb, but still, it's not.
The Tribbles' less cuddly cousins.
These things might eat Tribbles.
@@MandalorV7 DS9 had a lot of tribbles at one point and then they all disappeared by the next episode. Between the voles and Worf they probably didn't survive the day.
Loved that intro
How many creatures from cardassia prime have we seen? It could be like the xindi
The link is that if you go far enough back in the cardassian evolutionary chain, then all life forms on their planet share a single common ancestor. just like on Earth with humans and rodents.
Maybe the spoon gas something to do with moisture retention or it helps them sense energy fields. Maybe the Cardies lost this ability at some point in their evolution but kept the spoon.
Headcannon accepted
Voles and Cardassians must’ve had a common ancestor somewhere along the line, back when that face-spoon was important.
How the voles have six limbs, and Cardasasians have four
@@kfcroc18 Maybe because the Cardassians learned to walk upright and so didn’t need the extra limbs, whereas the voles didn’t and so kept them.
@@mb2000 Then they should 've had four legs or four arms.
@@kfcroc18 I don’t know, that was the only thing I could of to explain it. Maybe Cardassians do have smaller, probably unusable limbs somewhere on their bodies, we’ve never seen a Cardassian below the neck!
@@mb2000 Maybe the Vole didn't come from Card butt from a planet they colonized early in their history. And now they are just associated. The spoon could be a coincidence.
I always thought Cardassians were clearly supposed to be an evolution of reptiles, given multiple references on DS9 as well as the clear cobra like design of their neck ridges and their like of a warmer climate.
like the Komodowaran.
Cardi V's also sound pretty much identical to Cardi B.
they most likely didn't always have the spoon crest .. i think at some point in Cardassia's history they were genetically modified for either a medical purpose or as bioweapon's for sabotage .
2:44 "they breed rapidly" no they are slow compaired to the born pregnant tribbles
But still, not slow.
But both were on DS9 and only one was mentioned as still being on the station after a single episode. Obviously Voles breed more effectively than tribbles, even if they breed less often..
Also I should point out that as mentioned in this video, Voles are likely omnivorous. I think we can safely guess what happened to all the tribbles on the station.
great!
now I want a pet one!
you should add the telepathic pitcher plant to the bestiary
Most earth animals have something resembling a third eye. This can vary from a fully functioning light sensing organ to a patch of skin that is slightly photosensitive. This is situated on the spot of the mystica third eye, approximately the same spot as the cardassian spoon.
This is also one of the last places where the gill-ridges join, if I remember correctly the same ridge that forms the eye sockets. I believe it is why tall men tend to have a small divot there.
So there is a comparable analog in terrestrial biology. It could be. Remnant of this, or another vestigial organ. If the vole prefers energy dense locations, perhaps it's a magnetoreceptor? Would also explain the spoon shape, as this is helpfull in focussing input (proto-eyes were just that: an indentation)
This is the sort of content I signed up to see
Maybe the head-spoon is a sensory organ of some sort? We know that Cardassians don't hear very well, so maybe the head-spoon compensates for that in some way? It may be sensitive to vibration and allow them to identify the direction of a noise.
Scan for lifesigns, Transport, Job done :D
eh unless those life signs are very distinct you might end up beaming off beings other then voles. also pretty sure transporters in star trek have fail safes to prevent that kind of usage.
@@saqwana25 Well it is all made up and I was joking but you are right it would depend on the accuaracy of the scan. You wouldn't need to beam them off, beam them to a holding cell, check you have only voles, then dispose of them as you wish. Convert them to energy to power the replicators, replicated food tastes weird anyway :D
Makes you wonder how far Earth rats have gotten. Along with equivalent species from other planets. Because if the age exploration is any indication you know it's happened.
Back in the day I saw the crew crawling around in the maintenance tunnels for these things without even kneepads and said "Why don't they bring in some nonanthropomorphic aliens to scurry around the tunnels after them?" A quadrupedal alien race or a much smaller sapient biped race could make a good contribution to the Federation by dealing with all the work that needs to be done in these ergonomic nightmare tunnels. Bonus points if the maintenance race is carnivorous and can just eat the voles.
I still think they are adorable and would keep a bunch as pets. Then again, I already keep rats, so its not a leap for me.
Wasn't there an episode that had Quark being confronted by Sisko for trying to start vole races that Quark blamed on Morn?
As far as multiple species from the same world having the same features, look at the Xindi
There might be more but I'm not sure
Head-spoons are a case of adaptive mimicry. Look like the young of a known apex creature, and you might get left alone because mama might be nearby to eat any would-be predator. Probably whatever predecessors the Cardassians themselves had were just as ugly as the voles.
Reject Cardassianship, return to Vole
Seriously... scan for their life forms, and teleport them into a holding facilty, or into space. This is an easy thing to do, and surprised why Obrian didn’t try this.
I would assume from an external logic perspective, the spoon noggins are meant to directly link them visually with Cardassians.
Then I would assume from an internal logic perspective, the spoon noggins may be a common evolutionary trait among many lifeforms of a certain kingdom or clade among Cardassia; Cardassians are typically said to be 'reptilian,' but they obviously display mammalian traits, suggesting they may actually be along the lines of a synapsid. This may be a common clade among Cardassia. So just as Earth rats share basic mammalian features with us, Cardassian voles share traits with Cardassian hominids.
The "spoon" could be an enlarged sinus cavity with extra membranes for filtering dust. Who knows?
Mammalian reptiles existed on Earth at one time. Mammals and reptilians eventually diverged after several extinction events. Perhaps Cardassia saw fewer cataclysms. Clearly Cardassians have both mammalian and reptilian traits and voles share some of those features.
I imagine the Progenitors seeded voles with their humanoid genetic code and eons later, Cardassians appear as humanoid voles - the only tetrapods on their world (vestigial limbs no doubt).
Makes me wonder what animals the Progenitors seeded on Qo'noS or Ferenginar.
I can't remember where I read or saw this - probably a DS9 novel - but the spoon thingy is a bit like a human Navel. i.e. where the little crotch goblin attaches to its progenitor. YMMV.
Enabran Tain once mentioned "Riding Hounds". I'm guessing a horse sized dog. The only two Cardassian animals I've heard about.
there's also the cardasian Zaabo which has an edible meat and is used in stews on cardassia
Aren’t there also wompats that are kept as pets, and taspar that lay the eggs Picard ate in Chain of Command?
@@mb2000 Oh yeah...
Perhaps the spoon is what they use to detect or interpret EM fields while in humanoid Cardassians, it's vestigial or merely of limited sensitivity.
Whether its cardassians/voles or human/mice, if they originated from the same planet they share the same genetic material but if couple this with environmental stressors on cardasa prime could explain similar characteristics.
Quork? You mean QUARK! (Like the subatomic particle!)
The headspoon probably a remnant of a horn what is a common feature on the head area.
Next Combat pet is the Vole. Beam them over to an enemy ship to cause a DOT to all ship consoles and equipment causing them fail randomly. DOT duration is 3 days, 6 days for players. After cool down, 50% chance to reinfect the ship again. 5% chance to infect other ships in social zones. :-)
Maybe the face spoon has something to do with managing heat. Thus it’s a trait a lot of creatures have on the planet.
So specific
I thought I watched most of ds9. Don't remember that much about them. Never saw them in the show. Just a few mentions
Most Mammals on Earth share similar skulls, with variation so the just likely have a common ancester
Best Intro.
Disregarding taste, edible pests seem like something of a self correcting problem if you ask me.
Makes you think that although not shown the human tradition of having a ships cat or dog for pest control still existed.
Probably a trait from a common mammalian ancestor. Maybe most animals from the same animal family share this trait.
I wonder if any Klingon tactics for killing tribbles would apply...
Oh that just had me wonder what happened when DS9 had the tribble infestation, were the inhabitants actually cheering for the voles that killed the tribbles?
They are very edible.
After being dematerialized into replicator fuel.
Prolly make good boots too.
If I were the captain (or should that be Gul) of a ship with a vole infestation, my solution would be to put all the crew in space suits and then turn off life support, all the voles will die and the automatic maintenance system will clean up the bodies.
Actually, come to think of it this could be why DS9 had such a problem with them, they could hardly close the station or provide every guest with space suits just to deal with pests.
So the Star Trek equivalent of the Mynocks from Star Wars. Interesting.
Calling a Cardassian a "rat bastard" is not an insult, it is a reference to their heritage.
For the next Bestiary you should do something cuter. Like the Tribbles! When will you do one about the Tribbles?
Dax- "Who's Winning the War?"
Quark- "It's to soon to tell!"
Quark- "They found a nest!"
Dax- "That's Good!"
Quark- "It's not the main Nest!"
Dax- "That's not so good!"
Dax- "I thought Chief O'Brien trapped the last vole on the station four months ago!"
Quark- "Well he missed a couple, a married couple. They breed like tribbles!
Dax- "But they're not as cute."
Quark- "They're ravenous creatures and I want them gone!"
24th Century Vole
Aren't the spoon things supposed to be like their belly buttons?
The Cardassians genetically engineered the voles after they split off from the Bajorans.
They are probably second to Tribbles in their breeding.
You sayin' Cardassians evolved from Space Weasels?
... I'm not shocked
So voles are basically space rats.
WHEN TRIBBLE!?
And now we know why Lt. Cdr. Data and others aboard the USS Enterprise were allowed to have cats.
Could it be a common ancestor? Or in an alternate universe the dominion empire made the cardassasins from them?
Why do Cardassians and Cardassian Voles share the head spoons? My guess is they're sexy. Much like how on Earth, female birds find bright and elaborate plumage attractive, it could be that the head spoons are a display organ used to attract a mate. It is worth mentioning that female Cardassian's spoons have a blue pigment to them. I wouldn't be surprised if the female voles also were more blue. I also wouldn't be surprised if other Cardassian species had these traits, like the riding hound Tain talks about with Garak.
LOL my high school teacher shut down my Vole fights. Got suspended for it. You'd think she would be cool w/ it given she is a Ferangi! And yes she wears clothes!
Question for you. Why didn't they just lock on to the life sign of them and beam them into space ? Same for tribbles.
Probably because the Cardassian transporters aren’t that good. Still they had three Starfleet transporters on the runabouts they could have used (and the Defiant at the time of the Tribble).
You should do the Tickers from Gears of war
Give the vole some Highland toffee
Tribbles next pls!!
They are basically an ugly version of the tribble. Only this one won't get a Shot Trek about itself...although seeing Quark chase these things around his bar for fifteen minutes would be hilarious. Also, the "spoon" is probably the organ which they use the sense out magnetic fields and help navigate dark areas. It would make since with Cardassia having a darker star than our yellow sun. The Cardassians have it too, but probably less sensitive due to their more intelligent nature.
Could trainspotters not be used for pest control
Space Rodents of Usual Size
Tribbles!
Soooo what did they feed on before cardasia developed technology?
Shouldn't Cardassians also have six limbs if the chordates on their homeworld have that many?
Probably, if 6 limbs is the normal for species on Cardassia. But to many sci-fi series just use 6 limbs to show that it is an "alien" animal for the reason that it makes them weird looking, without looking at what that would mean for the design of the humanoids of that world. The worst example of this is Avatar (the dances with smurfs ripoff, not the awesome animated series), where every single species is shown with a double forelimb arrangement, except the Navi, who are just big blue cat people.
From a world-building standpoint and an evolutionary one, it makes no sense to have tetrapod and sextapod back-boned animals. If two types crawl out of the sea, they are bound to fight it out until one displaces the other. Besides, four arms would make the Cardassians look even more alien, as opposed to simple make up and masks.
@@JLAvey It's also possible the Preservers messing around with genetics just pre-determined them to be tetrapods, despite the native wildlife being Hexapods.
They are rats in space.
Poor Voles, if they were cute like Tribbles, DS9 would let them run rampant
*Angry son of Mogh noises*
Deep space nine should have had a bajoran having a pet vole named dukat.