One of the most bizarre creatures found in ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian art is the serpopard. While the art of ancient Egypt has been considered very realistic and accurate, there are depictions of animals that look mythical and possibly extinct.
The serpopard is a feline looking beast with a very long snakelike neck. The name itself is a cross with serpent and leopard. Serpopards appear on designs and dating back 3000 BCE.
Some theorise that serpopards might be heraldic in nature, or they symbolise the dangerous world outside of Egypt. Also fringe ideas out there suggest serpopards could be long necked dinosaurs. While it's unlikely that the sauropod dinosaurs of the Jurassic era made its way into the time of the Egyptian pharaohs, there are other explanations too.
Others think that the serpopards could be giraffes (doubtful, as there are giraffes clearly shown in ancient Egyptian art and they look nothing like serpopards). There was a more recent animal than the Brachiosaurus. Its called a Macrauchenia although it lived in South America, and also doesn't have the super serpentlike twisting neck of the serpopard.
The serpopard has feline features. There seemed to be a significant number of weird looking animals in Egyptian art and in mythology, as well as myths and legends everywhere else.
She Wolf Night
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