User blog comment:JediSpectre117/Regarding the surviving Prothean./@comment-118213-20120219185803

Disappointing that the Prothean race appear very different to what we were shown in the first two mass effects, via the statues on Ilos and the codex. Fair enough they wanted them to look like the Collectors, but they could have done it without chancing the appearance so much; if the reapers can genetically alter a single Prothean from a bi-pedal creature, into the insectoid Collector-General, then I'm pretty sure the change from original Prothean to Collector is feasible.

What I hope is that the difference is not going to be retconned (as if the statues never actually looked like that), so theoretically (as the OP said) Shepard and Leara pick-up on the difference in his appearance.