Bos Aqueous, a strange and largely unknown animal inhabits the waters of river Alph in Xanadu. Many people travel weeks to catch a glimpse of the thus called 'water cow'.
Bos aqueous is very similar to the common cow in many respects: it is a large vertebrate, five times the length, five times the width, five time the height, and therefore 125 times the volume of a house cat; it has bilateral symmetry and is fit to eat and digest tough plant material.
Bos aqueous is a herbivore, living on large green algae attached to the river bottom. Its teeth are specially adapted to chewing and uprooting algae. To digest plant material, bos aqueous has a two stomach system. When a bos aqueous takes a mouthful of algae, it goes down the oesophagus to the first stomach, where it is broken down by enzymes, and micro-organisms. It then passes through the stenturyne corridor, which is a stiff bone like passageway to the second stomach. In this passage way, moving bone like protrusions "chew" the food up more. After this the for goes into the second stomach where it is broken down by stomach acid and enzymes. The nutrients are then leeched from it in the small intestine, and water is leeched from it in the large intestine.
Solid waste is excreted through an opening called and anus at the central posterior of bos aqueous. Liquid waste is excreted through a separate urinary tract on its ventral side. The kidneys and liver of bos aqueous help with the waste removal process. Water is also excreted through its gills during respiration.
Bos aqueous are adapted to life under water as they breath through gills in the sides of their necks. It takes in water through its wide nostrils and mouth. The water then passes past many capillaries in which the flood which will be discussed in more detail later, absorbs the oxygen dissolved in the water. The water then passes out slits in the neck (called gills). Bos aqueous must live in well oxygenated water to survive, as they have no adaptations to poorly oxygenated water. Bos aqueous have remnants of lungs as they evolved from bovine species. Although these lungs are of no use for respiration, they are filled up with air to help bos aqueous stand upright (see diagram). These structures are called splungs.
An internal transport system is needed to transport materials, such as carbohydrates and oxygen around the body of bos aqueous. In this species, this is done by a muscles called a heart that pumps a liquid called flood around the body in tubes called flood vessels. Flood is a liquid that is hyper reactive with oxygen. It can take ninety nine percent of the oxygen out of the water passing by the gills. While the chemistry of flood is largely unknown, it is known that each molecule of flood can carry up to ten molecules of oxygen. Flood is unreactive with most other nutrients, but once they are in the flood stream, they are pumped along with the flood to their destinations. The heart-gill system of bos aqueous is one way. Flood goes through the heart, past the gills, to the rest of the body then back to the lungs moving in one direction. Flood vessels have one way valves on them. Flood is produced by the marrow in the bones of bos aqueous. Also produces there are fighter cells that help remove foreign materials from the flood stream.
Sight is bos aqueous's most valuable response system. Its eyes have special coverings over the so that it can see under water. Its brain and nervous system is highly developed so that it can interpret and respond to what it sees. Bos aqueous learn about the world around them by hearing as well. The nervous system senses sound waves pounding on the ear drum of bos aqueous, and the brain interprets them. This species also uses sound to communicate, for example, when a member of this species says "moo" it means a predator is coming, and the entire heard runs away. Touch taste and smell are also used by bos aqueous. This species can smell some delicious algae ten meters away, and taste it, but it can see it farther away than that. It can also feel when the temperature is lowering and it is time to migrate to the southern end of the river Alph. These senses work much like sight and hearing. A sensory organ receives a stimulus which is carried by the nervous system to the brain which interprets it. Of course, predation is not a big problem for bos aqueous as their violet colour helps them remain camouflaged.
Bos aqueous moves by means of an endoskeleton and muscle system. The legs are the most important part of the musculo-skeletal system for movement. They have large rake like protrusions at their ends that stick into the river bottom, thus the legs more traction and helping this species run faster. The horns of this species stick out the front of the had to help break the water resistance.
Bos aqueous reproduce sexually when eggs produced by the female of the species are fertilized by sperm produced by the male of the species in the birth canal of the female. Stentor luminous is a parasite that lives on bos aqueous and glows in the night. The females of this species choose mate with the males that glow the brightest (this aid survival, as stentor luminous only like animals with healthy flood). The zygotes develop for a full year in the uterus of their mother before being born. Young bos aqueous, called splaves are about the size of a house cat. They use their fin like tail to propel then through the water until their legs develop. They are singularly or in litters with a fibanocci number of splaves (which fibanocci numbers appear in nature is still unknown). While the record number of splaves in one litter is 13, the normal number is 5. Single splaves are normally only born in times of environmental stress. Splaves live on their mothers' milk, produced in the udder until they are about one and a half years old. At this point they are no longer dependant on their mother, but usually stay in the same herd.