I prefer the old design of the Ritos, even though the modern design is more fleshed out. Maybe it's divergent evolution since they exist at the same time Zoras do in BotW. Kinda like the (admitedly half-assed) explanation 343i came up with for why Jackals looked so different in Halo 4 and on; they implied that there were 3 races of them who all lived on different continents on their home planet.