Raboon

The Raboon, Carnopapio spp., is a bipedal, carnivorous cercopithecine Old World monkey from After Man: A Zoology of the Future, written by Dougal Dixon. It is a massive predator/scavenger of African tropical grasslands, evolved from baboons.

History of Raboons
Descended from the baboons that flourished on the grasslands during the age of human rule, their diet changed from omnivorous to carnivorous during the period that the big cats of the grasslands died out. At the same time they increased their speed by taking to their hind limbs and adopting a totally bipedal locomotion. The fore-limbs became reduced and the head was carried further forward, balanced by a thick, heavy tail. In physical form the raboon bears a distinct resemblance to the carnivorous, non-avian theropod dinosaurs that died out at the end of the Mesozoic.



Species of Raboons
A number of species of raboon, each living on a different species of prey, exist in family-based tribes, like the ancestral baboons. Carnopapio longipes is a very small, lightly built species about 1.8 meters high that hunts smaller animals. C. vulgaris is the most widely ranging species and preys on the rabbuck herds. C. grandis is the most massive member of the genus. It stands about 2.3 meters high at the hip and lives purely as a scavenger. As predators such as the horrane eat only the softer tissues and muscles of a gigantelope's belly and anal regions there is always plenty of meat left for the scavengers. The giant raboon concentrates on the meat of the limbs and neck, leaving the rest to smaller, less powerful carrion feeders, like birds of prey and gholes.