A Miracle of Rare Design by Mike Resnick.
The protaganist is Xavier William Lennox. He is an author of alien travelogues and undergoes surgical modifications to fit in with the aliens. When we first meet him he is on a world of aliens called Fireflies (he's discovered and tortured and mutilated and barely escapes with his life - it's a dangerous profession! :-).
The aliens you mention are indeed called Wheelers and live on the planet Tamerlaine. Lennox goes there on behalf of the Department of Cartology to try and assess whether they are sentient or not. This matters because if they are their planet cannot be settled by humans.
However I can't find any mention of a lizard like race with a pyramidal organ. The Fireflies are avian with vestigial wings, but a pyramid is a central part of their religion. Could this by what you're remembering? The other races Lennox becomes are Singers, which are vaguely insectoid, and Hawkhorns, which are somewhat avian but massively built.
The was published in 1994 so it isn't quite 25 years old, but it is otherwise a perfect match to your description.
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