A Short History Lesson, from [How to get Star Frontiers Yazirian into Star Wars]

By Imperial Advisor Arem Heshvaun, in Star Wars: Imperial Assault

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Back when West End Games was still making Star Wars material, in fact producing much of what would become the building blocks of the Expanded Universe cannon, various authors requested material from the game source books to help spin their creative writing juices.

One of the first authors was Timothy Zhan.

I'm not sure what the actual details were at the time, but there were a request for "any information on Bothans".

What followed over the course of some time was something akin to this.

West End Games "they delivered the Death Star II plans and location to the Alliance. A lot of them died."

Timothy Zhan, "Right. I got that. Anything else?"

West End Games, [search, search, search] "We got nothing."

Timothy Zhan, "What do they look like? Are they human like a Corellian?"

West End Games, "Umm ... Well ..."

Timothy Zhan, "Ok. THANKS. I got this."

Bothans are first described in Heir to the Empire novel, and ever since Bothan physical appearances differ noticeably in various Expanded Universe sources.

Illustrations for the Heir to the Empire Sourcebook from West End Games show them as fairly Human-like creatures with fur. The Heir to the Empire comic depicts the Bothans differently, as largely fur-faced with long snouts [almost akin to Joe Camel the mascot of Camel cigarettes, something many of us in West End games did not like at all].

The Shadows of the Empire comics follow the lead of the West End Games sourcebooks, as do the Shadows of the Empire Planets Guide , Star Wars: Rebellion , the Star Wars Customizable Card Game , and the Databank [this last source uses the image from the card and was the main image for some time]. Meanwhile, long-snouted Bothans appear in later EU games and publications.

Finally The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons shows Bothans as an average between the two extremes.
That art depicts Bothans as you know them today.
Pretty much as how the Yazirian from Star Frontiers looked back in the hay day of TSR, less the patagia between their arms and legs which they can use to glide over short distances .
Which was the Star Frontiers race equivalent for Wookies [complete with battle rage] in the first place.

Man, I'm old.

Now you fanboys get off my lawn!