In the project that I was working on with the late Gerald Perkins, one of the main characters was a female raptor named Rachel Kickclaw; which is rather special in of itself since most raptors don't use last names. Usually they just use the last name of the clan they are connected. Rachel was special though because she held the title of Guardian which was position recognized by both the all of raptor clans, and all the human governments in the region. She is absolute law when it come to affairs concerning dinos, including species other than raptor, and effectively has License to Kill status.
Due to the rather rough and tumble nature of the fledgling Raptor society that was coming into existence at the time of the story, and due to the fact the raptors had been optimized for combat, most humans were at serious disadvanatage facing a dino in CQB. For that reason part of the criminal code was written that stated that "Lethal force is approved when dealing with a hostile dinosaur that does not immediately comply to human/ dino authorities". The dino hate it but it was part of getting their emancipation since alternative is that the US Government would have had the whole lot "liquidated".
Since Rachael was suppose to be living persona of the law and acted as a guardian for both the human and dino world she had to someone who would instantly recognizable. Also she belongs to no clan. She also wears a distinctive body tattoo that is unique to her and acts as her badge. Gerald and I tried several ideas before settling on a somwewhat south pacific look for her.