Yes obviously I’m a proponent of the Big Lizard Agenda re: Cardassians. I picture them huge and lizardy with tapeta lucidem, retractable claws, weird lizard legs, and (of course) tails.
HOWEVER My hottest alien redesign take is that Bajorans are also reptilian and, in fact, share a common ancestor with Cardassian - something you would never guess by looking at them because both of them underwent rapid evolutionary shifts due to the vastly different climates they found themselves in. (Think Great Danes and Spaniels.)
My Bajorans are quite small. They can be easily mistaken for mammals because of the ecological niche they filled on Bajor but for the plating on their faces, and their ears - I picture their ears like lizard frills - which are used to sense electro magnetic waves (this is how the Prophets communicate to them, and having a “strong pagh” means you’re electromagnetically aligned).
The reason I like this headcanon is twofold:
1. While there are many mixed species characters in Trek, most of them seem to present biological problems for the carrier parent - if they don’t require medical intervention to happen in the first place. Cardassian/Bajoran pregnancies are the only cross species procreation I can think of that can be truly accidental.
2. If it were true and it ever came out, it would piss off literally everyone. Bajorans and Cardassians alike would fucking hate it. And that’s fun from a potential storytelling place.
