Wikipedia
Vaintè
Vaintè is one of the leaders of the race of lizard-men in Harry Harrison's science fiction book trilogy, West of Eden, Winter in Eden, and Return to Eden. Vaintè lived in the village of Alpeasak (near the real-world location of the Florida Keys) until it was overrun by cro-magnon hunters. She and many other Yilanè escaped death by fire by boarding a "uruketo", a mutated ichthyosaur with its fin designed to hold many Yilanè, basically used as a living submersible. Not a lot of her life is known, except she wishes to see the main cro-magnon hero of the book, Kerrick, dead.