Reptiles Are Abhorrent? Not to this troper.

Actually... probably not. They have verifiable personalities. Just because mammals and reptiles don't generally share a body language repertoire doesn't mean reptiles don't emote or have empathy. All you can say is that we aren't good at reading what they're saying.

A similar issue can be found with sharks and mantis shrimp. Not too long ago, birds were included, as well. <shrugs>

I met a really affectionate python called Rosie, once. You really couldn't miss it when she was either happy or concerned. Medium bundle of muscular joy, that one.

This.

I'm sick of people saying mammals are superior. Mammals are just average in terms of intelligence, and possibly even lower than average, as they have more inefficient brains (and therefore must have larger brains to have the same intelligence level)

I'd love to own a snake sometime, snakes are awesome. And most are easy to keep from what I hear, they eat rarely and don't make a lot of noise.

Though I admit that cobras scare the shit out of me, not because they are dangerous (I know they aren't the most deadly/aggressive things as a group when it comes to venomous snakes) but something about those hoods just makes my skin crawl. That threat display works on me, not sure why. I don't get the same reaction looking at any other dangerous reptile/animal, just cobra hoods.

edited 20th Mar '15 6:49:12 PM by Rationalinsanity

http://chaoslife.findchaos.com/snake-science

I really never understood this apparent abhorrence of reptiles. It must be because of their bad-ass looks, menacing habits and cold blood make them perfect fodder for alien villains and other stuff. It may also have something to do with religious/cultural stuff of certain ethnic groups. Judeo-christian culture considers snakes and other reptiles as evil (as per Adam and Eve).

Either way, I consider Reptile as a catch-term or evolutionary stage. What is called as a reptile is usually any animal which greatly resembles basal amniotes (earliest non-amphibian land vertebrates). Birds which are not so vilified (and surprise, they're usually not associated with reptiles) are actually direct descendants of sauropsid and closest genetic relatives of crocodiles (as odd as this may sound). However, they've truly evolved beyond the "reptilian morphological stage" and have many notable differences. And so are mammals which descend from Synapsids which for the most part, until late periods started, looked pretty much like reptiles.

Needless to say, a lot of Sauropsid lines survived to this day (one of which became really different from "reptilian morphology", the birds, but most retaining it) whereas all lines of Synapsids except from the highly divergent mammals got extinct.

Well, I dont now if post here consider the necro, but I will try anyway

For what I see, the reason people find aborrhent is a case of writer are mamals, we consider reptiles and insect to be to..."diferent" to much uncanny valley for us, when it come to animals usuall human prefer this:

with Mamals is Cute(Cats,dogs,mouses,etc)->Badass(Wolfs,tigers,lions,etc)->threating(also Wolfs,coyotes,tiger,etc) what consider threating and badass depend much of the autor

But Reptiles feel...."Alien" just like Spider, they are perfect for being villian...if there are any spider or lizard like species in this universe or another, they will call out or racism agasint them.