Rooia

Tomorrow I will be away for two weeks on vacation, I will have paper, laptop and a small scanner with me but don't expect to much from  me.*

This, is a little update on Nea which some of you must waited for for some time. And now it is here, Neas largest land animal. I know, it's not a elephant or sauropod sized creature but you can't have everything and the giant deserts, steppes and grasslands of the planet don't support large herds of extremely large herbivores. Rooia are, obviously, descendants of terrestrial Oryx antelopes, desert specialists from Africa and Arabia, well equipped for a long time without water or food. The Rooia is even better adapted for the hyperarid landscapes of Nea, partly because of genetic modifications and on the other hand because of many generations in this harsh environment. 
Beside being bigger they are able to store more fat, have larger ears to radiate heat and can eat a even broader menu of spiky and poisonous plants which are often the only thing you find in the desert.
Because of their weight they mostly avoid the sand seas but beside that they are about to take over all hyperarid, arid and semiarid regions of the planet. Their population is even disjunct enough that a eastern and a western form can be distinguished by now.
Rooia travel all year in small to medium sized herds, in semiarid regions they even can come together in numbers up to 150 animals.
They aren't aggressive but can be pretty protective and especially during the breeding season or when the cows have a calf, it's better to stay away.

Yeah, and that's of course a Northern steppe Takin beside the Rooia, just to compare two of the largest herbivores of the planet.

Nea: hyrotrioskjan.deviantart.com/a…


*But I can tell you I worked on some pretty cool stuff recently which will come up soon, hopefully in the international media (At least Paleomedia).