Mix-and-Match Critters: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
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{{quote|''"I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you,''<br />
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* [[Fullmetal Alchemist]] has chimeras, which are regular animals alchemically combined. And sometimes they [[Talking Animal]].
** {{spoiler|[[It Got Worse]]: [[Complete Monster|That human in question is the alchemist's daughter!]]}}
* ''[[Jo Jo's Bizarre Adventure (Manga)|Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure]]'', Dio Brando loves to make creatures zombies and then fusing their parts.
* Chimairamon of ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'' is based on the mythical chimera, and it shows. Several other species fall under this on a less extreme scale, with other obvious ones generally the product of a [[Fusion Dance]].
* All the ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]'' series and spinoffs contain Ryo-Ohki, a cat-rabbit hybrid, often referred to as a "cabbit". ''[[Tenchi Muyo! GXP]]'' also contains a second cabbit, named Fuku. ''[[Alternate Universe|Tenchi Universe]]'' has Ken-Ohki, a male cabbit who ends up as Ryo-Ohki's boyfriend.
* In ''[[Ranma One Half]]'', Jusenkyo has a spring called "Niuhomanmaolenniichuan" ([[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|or variations thereof]]), which translates as "Spring of Drowned Yeti Riding Ox While Carrying Crane And Eel" and is [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]]. Anyone who falls into this spring gains an [[One-Winged Angel|alternate form]] that is considered exceptionally formidable. In essence, it's a [[Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever|giant]] minotaur (legs and head of an ox, body and arms of a yeti) with an eel growing from its spine to form a tail and a tiny set of crane wings sprouting from its shoulders. It's [[Super Strength|inhumanly strong]], [[Lightning Bruiser|surprisingly quick]], [[Made of Iron|massively tough]], and capable of flight. Needless to say, the one character who has this spring considers himself [[Cursed Withwith Awesome]] and has no desire to remove it. In fact, possibly because this form was created by such a mixed up spring, he later manages to assimilate a Spring of Drowned Octopus curse, giving himself [[Combat Tentacles]] and the ability to spray ink from his fingers. ([[Fridge Logic|Though it still begs the question of how these springs can exist, considering the inherent difficulty in drowning an octopus and/or an eel]].)
** [[Fridge Brilliance|Freshwater spring, saltwater sealife]].
* Plenty of ''[[Berserk]]'''s Apostles and other monsters can be described as these, ranging from Zodd (Bull/tiger/ape) to the ogres (giant humanoids with sperm whale snouts and elephant tusks) to the trolls (Rat/monkey/pig). Then there's the Pisacha, they look like those sea monsters from old sea maps, with elephant trunks, made by mutating a whale.
** There also happened to be a kelpie (mythological water horses known for luring and drowning their victims) that looked like a cross between a horse and a toad - http://manga.animea.net/berserk-chapter-25-page-101.html
* ''[[Inuyasha]]'' is practically MADE of this trope; most of the [[Airborne Mook|low-level demons]] are serpents or arthropods.
* ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', ''[[Beast Wars II (Anime)|Beast Wars II]]'', and ''[[Beast Wars Neo (Anime)|Beast Wars Neo]]'' features several mix/hybrid critters as alt-modes.
 
 
== Comic Books ==
* Five words: [http://superdickery.com/index.php?view=article&catid=29%3Aconfounding-comic-covers-index&id=1262%3Athe-animal-vegetable-mineral-menace&option=com_content&Itemid=51 The Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man]. Technically, he was a ridiculously overpowered [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|Shapeshifter]]. [[This Is Your Premise Onon Drugs|Who liked turning into mix-and-match critters. A LOT.]]
* [[The DCU]] character B'wana Beast's power is to ''make'' these from two animals.
* [[Marsupilami]], from ''[[Spirou and Fantasio]]'' and the eponymous title, are vaguely monkey-like creatures, oviparous but with a belly button, with a leopard coat and the occasional melanistic individual.
* Also from [[The DCU]], Ultraa, the Multi-Alien. Four alien races have rayguns designed to [[You Will Be Assimilated|turn unsuspecting people into members of their race]]. Ultraa gets hit by all four at once.
* If [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears]] and [[Everything's Even Worse Withwith Sharks]], then it's hard to imagine just [[Up to Eleven|how appalling]] things are with [http://theygotmixedup.blogspot.com/ Sea Bear and Grizzly Shark]!
* H-142 From [[wikipedia:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume II#Issue 6: .22You Should See Me Dance the Polka...22:|League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]
 
 
== Fan Fic ==
* [[Script Fic]] ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series (Fanfic)|Calvin and Hobbes The Series]]''' [[Get Back to Thethe Future|"Time Terror"]] shows Sherman, stranded in [[Zeerust|the future]], forced to become one of these in order to sell... something.
 
 
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* Romero's animals in ''[[Spy Kids]] II: The Island of the Lost Dreams''.
** Of course, most of the "Zoo Too" creatures being referred to have names already associated with existing animals, such as [[Hurricane of Puns|the tiger-shark, sheep-dog, horse-fly, cat-fish, bull-frog and the plot-important]] {{spoiler|spider-monkey}}. And these were created by ''accident''. Whatever you say, Romero.
* The Beast in Disney's ''[[Beauty and The Beast (Disney)|Beauty and Thethe Beast]]'' has the mane of a lion, the beard and head of a buffalo, the brows of a gorilla, the eyes of a human, the tusks of a wild boar, the body of a bear, and the hind legs and tail of a wolf.
* In ''[[Shrek]] 2'', we see children of [[Hot Skitty-On-Wailord Action|Donkey and the Dragon]].
* ''[[Q the– The Winged Serpent]]'' has the head of a vulture, feathered wings, a snake-like tail, and four limbs sort of like an iguana. On top of that, Q is meant to be the dragon-god Quetzelcoatl... and doesn't really look like him either.
* One of Flint's failed inventions on ''[[Cloudy Withwith a Chance of Meatballs]]'' is the pigeonrat.
* ''[[Sharktopus]]''! Heck, Sci-Fi Channel original movies tend to run on these, to the point where there almost appears to be a competition as to which movie features the most ludicrous monster. (Mansquito, Sharkodile, ad infinitum.)
* In ''House II: The Second Story'', we have Bippy, the dog with a caterpillar body that was found in the Triassic period.
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== Literature ==
* In the ''[[Discworld]]'' novel ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Eric|Eric]]'', the demon-god Quetzovercoatl is described as "half-man, half-chicken, half-jaguar, half-serpent, half-scorpion and half-mad".
** Making for "a wossname total of three homicidal maniacs."
** Discworld also has the chimera in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Sourcery|Sourcery]]''. Unlike the Greek version, the Disc's chimera has the legs of a mermaid, the hair of a tortoise, the teeth of a fowl and the wings of a snake. It's similar to the Greek chimera in having the breath of a furnace, and the temperament of a rubber balloon in a hurricane.
** From ''Going Postal'': It was said that there was one horse in Ankh-Morpork that had a longitudinal seam from head to tail, being sewn together from what was left of two horses that had been involved in a particularly nasty accident.
** And in ''The New Discworld Companion'', it's mentioned that many of the animals kept at the College of Heralds are descended from previous generations of heraldic models, who'd gotten rather friendly with one another. And it shows.
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** There was also a very short-lived line of stuffed toys by Remco based upon these characters, which identified these hybrid creatures as "Firffels". Coincidentally - or not - they arrived around the same time the Wuzzles toy line was launched ([http://babbletrish.blogspot.com/2009/07/highly-dubious-andor-forgotten-80s-toys.html this blog post] has a few pictures and was written by someone who [[Adaptation Displacement|had no idea]] they were based on a book).
* [[Piers Anthony]] has quite a lot of these. In his ''[[Apprentice Adept]]'' series, he uses classical mythology. His Dragon's Gold books feature multiple hybrids.
** And, of course, who can forget ''[[Xanth (Literature)|Xanth]]''. Aside from "ordinary" creatures like centaurs or harpies, there are also things like flying centaurs, half-demon anything, winged mermaids, and mer-nagas. If all that is not enough for you, how about a half-''car'', half-harpy?
** In another [[Piers Anthony]] book every animal in an [[Alternative Universe]] is one of these except dragons and possibly froogs. This leads to things such as bearvers and meer.
* ''[[True History (Literature)|True History]]'' (from around 170 AD) mentions "horse-vultures" among the armies of the Moon King.
* ''[[Dune]]'' has the Bene Tleilaxu's Sligs - slugs and pigs genetically mashed together. Apparently it makes the meat tender and succulent.
* [[Margaret Atwood]]'s ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' has quite a few including wolvogs (genetically modified wolf/dogs designed for home defense), the spoat/gider (a goat with spider genes, used for the production of high-strength fiber), and the snat, described as "an unfortunate combination of snake and rat" (apparently both lethal and testy).
* [[Jack Chalker]]'s [[Well World]] is filled to the brim with semi-mythological mix-and-match critters, justified as the result of lazy alien species designers cribbing each others' work. Meanwhile, the mix-and-match critters from mythology are justified as legends and "racial memories" stemming from our own species' creation on the Well World.
* ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Literature)|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'' and [[Land of Oz (Literature)|its sequels]] had such creatures as the Winged Monkeys, the Kalidahs (part tiger, part bear) and the Li-Mon-Eags (lion, monkey, and eagle, with donkey tails). Not to mention the Gump (made from two couches, some palm fronds, a broom, and a taxidermed stag head).
* [[The Draka]]'s ghouloons, who are constructed from the genes of a baboon, a dog, and a human. They are actually sentient, and used as [[Cannon Fodder]]. To some extent, the [[Superior Species|post-human]] ''Homo Drakensis'' race itself qualifies, as the Draka used traces of feline DNA to increase muscle strength and sense acuity.
* Most of the animals on Skeeve's home dimension of Klah, from the [[Myth Adventures]] series, appear to be this trope, at least to judge by their names (e.g. 'spider-bear').
* In ''[[Leviathan (Literaturenovel)|Leviathan]]'', something like half the countries in Europe rely on these for the vast majority of their technology.
* The Wearets in ''[[Redwall]]''. Half weasel, half ferret, all [[Ax Crazy]].
* The Mock Turtle in ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' is supposed to be "the thing Mock Turtle Soup is made from." In [[Real Life]], that would be a calf's head, so Tenniel's illustration gave the Mock Turtle one, with hooves and tail to match, placed on the body of a turtle.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' has featured a hippogriph. This one didn't appear though.
{{quote| '''Arthur:''' It is said to have the body of a lion, the wings of an eagle and [[Blatant Lies|the... face of a... bear]].}}
** Also, since monsters in ''Merlin'' tend to be creatures from medieval heraldry or Arthurian legends, [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] appear at least twice a season.
* Alluded to on ''[[Degrassi the Next Generation]]'': Marco thinks bees are "like flying death monkeys".
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' has had a few, since because of the rubber suit, all of them have to be humanoid. Most notable is one in the first season, right after Tommy joined, that was part turtle and part...''traffic light''?
* ''[[Kratts' Creatures]]'' has Ttark, an [[Roger Rabbit Effect|animated creature]] who is a combination of a mammal, a reptile, and a bird.
 
 
== Mythology ==
* The Chimera(who resembles a three-headed monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent) is probably the most prominent of these, to the extent that a number of works of fiction use "Chimera" as a generic term for Mix And Match Critters of all sorts.
* Many mythological creatures - the Chimera, the [[A Load of Bull|Minotaur]], the Sphinx, the [[Our Gryphons Are Different|griffin]], [[Harping Onon About Harpies|Harpies]], [[Our Centaurs Are Different|centaurs]], Pegasus, Sleipnir (although he's a mash-up of a horse and... another horse), Cerberus (who sometimes had a snake for a tail), the [[Unicorn]]...
* Some scientists believe that the dragon is itself a mix-and-match creature that was deeply ingrained into our psychology through evolution, which would explain why so many different cultures feature some kind of dragon. The theory states that the dragon is a combination of mankind's animal enemies. The body comes from dangerous snakes and other reptiles. The maw comes from big cats. The talons come from birds of prey. The wings come from bats, etc.
** As for fire, animals instinctively fear fire. Humans have largely conquered that fear by conquering fire, but it still crept into the subconscious.
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* The peryton is a [[Ascended to Carnivorism|man-eating]] half-bird, half-deer creature from Atlantis that casts a human shadow. For this reason it was believed that it was [[The Shadow Knows|a human soul trapped inside a monstrous body]].
* In a deliberate subversion, 16th-century Italian author Ludovico Ariosto created the ''hippogriff'' -- a beast that is part griffin and part horse -- for his epic ''Orlando Furioso'' as a joke on a line from the Roman poet Virgil which used "when griffins are mated with horses" as a synonym for "impossible" or "never". Although it never was truly "mythological" it is considered so today.
** Hippogriffs have appeared in ''[[Flash Gordon (Comiccomic Stripstrip)|Flash Gordon]]'', ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'' and, of course, ''[[Harry Potter]]''.
** One of Dream's three guards in ''[[The Sandman]]'' is described as a hippogriff but is drawn as a Pegasus-type winged horse.
** Card game ''[[Munchkin (Tabletop Gamegame)|Munchkin]]'' also has a hippogriff - a hippo with small fangs and two small wings.
* ''[[Dragon Mango (Webcomic)|Dragon Mango]]'': One of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters|many]] main characters summoned a hippogryff -- half-hippopotamus, half-griffin.
* [[Older Than Dirt]]: The earliest civilizations, such as Sumer, the Indus Valley, Minoan Crete, and [[Ancient Egypt]], had various mix-and-match beasts such as griffins, lamassu, leogryphs, serpopards, sirrush, and winged snakes. The early Sumerians had [[Our Mermaids Are Different|gods that were part man and part fish]]. And some sculptures found in villages older than the first cities also reflect this motif.
* The alicorn, pegasus crossed with unicorn, goes back to ancient Greek descriptions of "Ethiopian Pegasoi."
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*** Hippogriff (half horse, half eagle)
*** Thoul (1/3 troll, 1/3 hobgoblin, 1/3 ghoul)
** That's not the worst of it. One [http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?articleid=18739 article] on this in [[Dragon Magazine(magazine)]] has armadillephant, dragonfly turtle, duckbunny, moat cat (newt+puma), spider-horse, and venom dog (mastiff+scorpion). Why ''duckbunny''? Just because it's a good idea to practice with something less deadly than owlbears.
*** Possibly it's a reference to an optical illusion (see [[Real Life]] above).
** As of 3rd Edition, templates made it easy for DMs to Mix And Match their own custom-made game critters.
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** A [[Prestige Class]], the Master Transmogrifier in 3.5 can do this, combining the traits of at least two creatures when using a polymorph or shapechange spell, such as combining a squid's tentacles with a dragon.
* The [[Fighting Fantasy]] gamebook ''Citadel of Chaos'' featured two monsters: one with a wolf's head and an ape's body, the other precisely the reverse.
* ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' uses a lot of the same [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] as does Dungeons and Dragons (above), but outdid themselves in the ''Alliances'' set, with the [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=3227 Phelddagrif]--a winged hippo with a lot of weird abilities. They later came out with [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=97052 Questing Phelddagrif].
** The Phelddagrif, mind, is a ''deliberate'' in-joke. Its name is an anagram of {{spoiler|'Garfield, Ph. D.' after the creator of Magic}}. That said, Magic has played with the 'build your own creature from individual parts' concept from time to time -- the chimeras from ''Visions'' come to mind, for one.
*** This is actually the point of auras and equipment, but auras have the unfortunate card disadvantage, in that, yes, putting Holy Strength on your Benalish Hero takes its toughness up to three, but a Lightning Bolt (which does three damage) will kill it and your Holy Strength, whereas if you'd played (say) another creature, you'd still have a creature.
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== Toys ==
* Disney's ''[[The Wuzzles]]'', somehow making insect/mammal creatures cute and cuddly, rather than an unholy vision from H.R. Giger's nightmares.
* 'Magna Morph' toys are animals made of separate body parts held together by magnets, and so can be disassembled and reassembled into interesting combinations. [[Stephen Colbert]] pointed out that the set includes a [[Everything's Worse Withwith Bears|grizzly bear]] and a [[Eagle Land|bald eagle]], which means it's theoretically possible to create a ''Greagle'' - "Aah! Kill it! Kill it!"
* According to the back-story of the Jurassic Park '[http://www.figurerealm.com/Galleries.php?SID=408&SSID=1 Chaos Effect]' toy line, InGen hybridized various extinct species (whose genetic material was presumably just lying around) because why the hell not? Most fans disliked the premise and considered this a "very ugly" toy line (the garish paint jobs didn't help), but they did have a cult following.
** Somehow they combined a [[Giant Flyer|Pteranodon]] with an ''[[Mighty Glacier|Ankylosaurus]]'' and made it '''awesome'''. Other creatures in the series include:
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** The newer games has mix and match critters in the form of the mutants. Examples of such are the Scorporilla (Scorpion/Gorilla), the Snipe (Fox/Tropical Bird) the Rhinoroller (Rhino/Armadillo) and the Battler...which is half Bat, half ''Switch Blade''!
* Many creatures in ''[[Jak and Daxter]]''. One of the main characters is an Ottsel (otter-weasel), and there are yakows (yak-cow), crocadogs (crocodile-dog), monkaws (monkey-macaw) and hiphogs (hippo-hog) running around.
* ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]'' provides the page image, with some of its many Chimarae; bio-engineered animal hybrids that are the standard [[Mook|mooks]] for most of the game. Some of the crazier ones, like the Cattlesnake and Pigtunia, aren't shown in the above image.
* Variation occurs in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog|Sonic Adventure 1 & 2]]'', where the Chao develop physical traits similar to the small animals fed to them (bunny ears, peacock crest, tiger arms...).
** Neutral and Dark "Run Type" Chao resemble Sonic and Shadow respectively, with blue or black striped head spines. Also, it's possible to make one look like freakin' CHAOS.
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* ''[[Dungeon of Doom]]'' gives us Alligogs (alligator-frogs) and Lizzogs (lizard-frogs).
* The ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series features mole-bats, or ''moguri'', known in English as Moogles. The fact that they end up looking more like teddy bears than anything else can be chalked up to the [[Rule of Cute]].
* [[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance (Video Game)|In]] [[Final Fantasy XII (Video Game)|Ivalice]], [[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 (Video Game)|though]], moogles tend to look more like a [[Everythings Better With Bunnies|half-bunny]] half-bat.
* ''[[War CraftWarcraft]]'' games contain many mythological mix and match critters, such as gryphons, hippogryphs and chimaeras. Then there are wyverns, which are lions with batlike wings and scorpion tails, magnataurs (essentially a wooly mammoth centaur) and zhevras(zebras with a small horn on their forehead). There's also creatures that look mostly like real-world ones but with few parts added, like giraffes with gazelle-style horns and crocolisks (6-legged crocodiles).
** Always found it odd that the ''Warcraft'' games call those flying lion-scorpion beings wyverns when they are quite clearly ''manticores''.
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' includes Moonkin, which are owlbears, as well. Druid characters are shapeshifters, and if one takes the offensive spellcasting talents, you can change into one.
** ''WoW'' also has the wolpertinger. It has the body, head, feet, and tail of a hare... and fangs, wings, and antlers. They can also only be seen when ''[[Mushroom Samba|drunk]]''...
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Yoshi]] is supposed to be a [[Everything's Better Withwith Dinosaurs|dinosaur]]... with a turtle-like shell that doubles as a saddle, a chamelon/froglike tongue that [[Big Eater|swallows]] [[Extreme Omnivore|everything]], and has been known to [[Dinosaurs Are Dragons|grow (feathered) wings and breathe fire]]... and he wears boots.
** Bowser is commonly confused to be a dragon-turtle, but he's actually designed to be an ox-turtle. Miyamoto originally envisioned him to be an ox, but his staff convinced him to make Bowser a turtle instead. Bowser's final design merged the two creatures.
* The ratigators from ''[[Sewer Shark]]''.
* Quite a few of the hatchable animals in ''[[Billy Hatcher and Thethe Giant Egg]]'', including a kangaroo/lion, a sheep/camel/ostritch, a monkey/bat, a cheetah/gazelle, and a rhino/bird...thing.
* Of course, several [[Pokémon]], especially plant/animal hybrids under the Grass type.
* ''[[Aion]]'''s natural wildlife would fit right at home with the ''[[Woozles]]'' or ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''; amongst the combination seen in the game: Faurons (ram/wilderbeasts), Airons (crane/peacocks), Brax (boar/bison), Snufflers (armadillo/elephant), Sparkies (beetle/firefly), and of course, pangolin squirrels.
* ''[[Halo]] 2'': Everyone say hello to [http://img92.imageshack.us/i/dobermangatorpu4.jpg/#%20q=doberman Doberman-Gator!]
* ''[[Kingdom of Loathing]]'' has the Lobsterfrogmen. [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin]].
* You get the chance to play as one of these in ''[[EVO Search for Eden]]'', since the game lets you mix and match creature parts.
* [[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]]:
** ''[[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]]''. Combine one part cat, one part dog, one part rabbit, and [[Ridiculously Cute Critter|sixteen parts cute]].
** ''[[Klonoa (Video Game)|Klonoa]]'' also has Popka who is half dog, and half insect.
* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]: Dark Legacy'''s Chimera: A lion's body with dragon wings and eagle talons instead of claws, with three heads: A snake, a lion, and an eagle, to correlate with the three types of Gargoyles and their elements (Poison, Fire, and Electricity, respectively.)
* In ''Return to Mysterious Island'', Mina must get past a sea creature with a crocodile-like head and a shark's body. Possibly it's meant to be an ichthyosaur, but if so, the designers [[Did Not Do the Research|put its tail on upside-down]].
* ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' has Nightstalkers, the result of an experiment in splicing coyote and rattlesnake DNA.
** ''[[Fallout]] 1'' & ''2'' have the pigrat as well. Also, the deathclaw is a mixture of Jackson's chameleon and various 'other species'.
* The Sea Creatures of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]] Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay''. They have the head of a sea horse, the body and shell of a turtle, the fins and flippers of a fish, and the large bulb antenna of an angler fish. [[Hell Is That Noise|And their calls are... kind of weird]].
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== Webcomics ==
* Muut from ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court (Webcomic)|Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' is shown as a human with the head and feet of an owl (the original character from Cahuilla Native American myth was just [[Owl Be Damned|a giant owl]]). ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' has also featured the classical Minotaur as a character.
* ''[[Inverloch (Webcomic)|Inverloch]]'' had D'akor: furry, humanoid goat-wolves.
** [[Exalted|Is Ma-ha-Suchi involved?]]
** Sarah Ellerton's followup project, ''[[The Phoenix Requiem]]'', also has Dakor. This time, she left out the humanoid and just made wolves with goat horns.
* ''Triquetra Cats'' takes this trope to the extreme with Splio Beasts -- animals which are ultimately the genetic crossbreed of every known member of the animal kingdom all mixed into one.
* In ''[[Irritability]]'', Exoth keeps a stock of modular chimaera parts in one of his labs that can just be snapped together.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' with its chimerae and [[Shapeshifting]] [[Transformation Ray|devices]] which is taken to another level involuntarily with Vlad/Vladia being created from DNA from several bats, owls, hawks and even a leopard in addition to human and an alien and voluntarily with Grace who can mix and match aspects from [[Partial Transformation|any]] and [[Shapeshifter Mashup|all]] of her continually growing number of forms. Also, [http://www.egscomics.com/sketchbook/?date=2004-03-07 this] critter in filler.
* ''[[The Princess Planet]]'' often have whole strips devoted to Princess Christi and other princesses trying to outdo each other by showing all ever weirder [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] than the other.
* ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'': [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/04/10/episode-406-and-badger-snakes/ I'm sorry, no I won't take it. If we accept orc zombies, then we open the gate to all kinds of crap. What's next? Centaur dragons? How about demon fairies? Maybe buffalo elves? Heck, why not whale vultures?]
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* Spontaneous Combustion has Swift, Gabriella, and the recently announced "badger-squirrels" that are all animal combinations. Swift is a variety of fast creatures (cats and rodents can be seen) and Gabriella is an amoeba-girl (and an oxymoron).
* Speaks with Monsters answers the question "what do griffons (half-eagle, half-lion) eat?" with pescazelles, half-trout, half-gazelle.
* [[Erfworld]] has the Unipegataurs, which are [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|Winged centaurs with tiny horns on their foreheads]].
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'', which is explicitly set in a world based on ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'', naturally [http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0322.html takes this one on].
** In a later strip, Roy questions the existence of a [[Somewhere a Paleontologist Is Crying|brontosaurus]], and is told that if gryphons can exist, why not an apatosaurus with the head of a camarasaurus?
* ''[[Beyond the Canopy]]'' has spider crabs which (unlike [[Real Life]] spider crabs) are giant spiders with crab claws. There's also a brief appearance by deer that have small trees in place of antlers.
* In ''[[The Adventures of Shan Shan (Webcomic)|The Adventures of Shan Shan]]'', [http://shanshan.upperrealms.com/view.php?pageid=026&chapterid=1 a winged lion].
* ''[[Mountain Time (Webcomic)|Mountain Time]]'s'' snailbear somehow manages to combine this with [[Fauxlosophic Narration]].
* ''[[Dissonance (Webcomic)|Dissonance]]'' takes a relatively realistic approach to this--Pandora has traits of three different kinds of caniform, in addition to traits not typically found in that suborder, but it's definitely its own creature rather than a mix of the others. The protagonists are currently clueless as to what it could have evolved from (having dismissed genetic engineering, and only joked about aliens.)
 
 
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** And the magnificent [http://fav.me/d3e3hro Sheenicorn]!
* [http://valley-of-siyyon.deviantart.com/ The Valley of Siyyon], populated as it is with Centaurs, pretty much lends itself to this kind of thing. Which leads to such characters as and [http://fav.me/d313k82 Elephantaur], [http://fav.me/d2x1o7d Turtletaur] and -yes- a ''[http://fav.me/d3kw34f Hydrataur]''.
* Some [[Uni Creatures (Website)|Uni CreaturesUniCreatures]] are hybrids, including Capricious (goat/dragon,) Felic ("cowbunnyhorse") and Diani (deer/wolf.)
* The [[SCP Foundation (Wiki)|SCP Foundation]] has carefully secured [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-889 this former barn]. It can even create mix-and-match ''plant life''.
* It's very common to find people on ''[[Pokémon]]'' forums and art sites who like to do "Pokémon sprite splices", in which two or more Pokémon sprites are taken and edited to create a hybrid of said Pokémon. These splices range from ANYTHING to Pikquaza, to Eevedactyl to Mewgong to Bulbatres.
* At [[Super-Hero School|Whateley Academy]] in the [[Whateley Universe]], stuff like this is a common problem among the students. Diamondback is half human, half twenty foot long snake. Harpy is... a harpy. Psydoe is half deer. Gila is half lizard. Razorback is half ''velociraptor''.
* The [[Super Mario Galaxy (Video Game)|Dino Pirahna]] in Episode 8 of [[BowsersBowser's Kingdom]] is the offspring of Steve the Pirhana Plant and a [[Super Mario World (Videovideo Gamegame)|Dino Rhino]].
* Most, if not all, of the animals in [[The 99 Rooms]].
* Several in ''[[Dark Souls]]'', such as the Catbear.
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== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]''. Oh, boy, where to begin? The series initially had a few hybrid animals among those that just looked slightly different from real ones, but they became more of the norm as the series went on. The writers officially stopped pretending they were doing otherwise when we first saw a "Platypus Bear", which is ''exactly'' what it sounds like (and probably a tribute to the aforementioned Owlbear). The same episode also gives us what we must assume is a turducken.
** The [[Team Pet]], Momo, is a flying lemur (it has flaps of skin like a flying squirrel).
** Earlier designs of Appa, the ''other'' [[Team Pet]], a flying bison, were a mix between a bison and a manatee, only with six legs.
** The "[[Call a Smeerp Aa Rabbit|penguins]]" from the first episode have four flippers and otter-like tails.
** The farm in "Zuko Alone" has almost every common meat animal, albeit mixed with a pig.
** A side comic on nick.com actually had ''scorpion bees''.
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*** This was later confirmed to be a Polar-Bear Dog.
** Catgators: catfish/alligator crosses. Kept as pets by the waterbenders of the swamp region.
** Dragonfly: [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|figure it out for yourself]].
** There are Hermit Crab Spiders in "The Northern Air Temple".
** Gorilla-goat: Possibly one of the strangest hybrids ever seen on ''Avatar''.
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*** Even weirder: if you pay attention you'll notice that almost all animals in the regular Avatar world are [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] -- but all of the animals from the ''[[Spirit World]]'' aren't! Hei Bei was a giant panda, Wan Shi Tong was a giant owl (but see below), the knowledge seekers that work in [[The Library of Babel|the Spirit Library]] are foxes, the moon and ocean spirits took the form of koi fish, and we also see a wolf and a talking baboon. That has some [[Epileptic Tree|odd implications...]]
*** Wan Shi Tong also transforms into a Owl-dragon hybrid when he's pissed.
*** Altogether, this has led to some [[Wild Mass Guessing]] theories that the Avatar-verse is actually Earth or a human space colony in the far future. The animals are results of genetic experimentation, as could bending, with aid from magic. People have then extrapolated that said colony had problems with [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]]; after the holocaust, people rebuilt, and memories of Asian culture and the old 'pure' forms of animals gave the world the show has today.
* The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'' has more.
** Korra's [[Canine Companion]] Naga the Polar Bear dog, just as [[Canis Major|giant]] as one might assume
** Bolin's pet fire ferret Pabu, a mix between a ferret and a red panda
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** Molkrom, a centaur-like demon with the head of a horse, a wolf's tail and teeth, bull horns and tentacles for arms.
** In "Son Of Celice", Orko accidentally creates a chimpanzee with a rabbit's head when he means to summon a gift for the king of Tahrin.
* ''[[Thunder CatsThundercats]]'' followed suit, of course.
* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' has fun with this, with the Esquilax, a horse with the head of a rabbit... and the body of a rabbit. Oh look, it's galloping away!
** Played straight in one [[Treehouse of Horror]] episode where Homer gets turned into a bizarre creature with a fish's head, a donkey's ears, a pair of brooms for hands, and a chicken's body.
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* ''[[The Pirates of Dark Water]]'' had Niddler the Monkey-Bird as one of its [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]].
* In the ''[[Sushi Pack]]'' episode "Near Miss", Paradoxter, himself a man-ox of unknown origin, creates the Animixter Ray that combines two animals into one amalgam. The animals all go back to normal once it is broken, though.
** Funny, that sounds an awful lot like a plot by Dr. Nimnul in ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]''...
* Just in case humanoid turtles (and a rat, a rhinoceros, a boar, a gecko...) didn't qualify, the first ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' TV series had an episode where the [[Villain of the Week]] was a [[Mad Scientist]] that bred [[Mix-and-Match Critters]] to be his slaves (a gorilla-bison was among the examples).
* ''[[The Life and Times of Juniper Lee]]'' has an episode dedicated to Juniper meeting a bat-otter.
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'''Buford:''' [[If I Had a Nickel]] for every time I herd that... }}
* Alfe from ''[[The Problem Solverz]]'' is supposed to be part human, part dog, and part anteater, although he doesn't really resemble any of those.
* Maleficent's goons from ''[[Sleeping Beauty (Disney film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'', which all resemble evil pig-vulture-gorilla-things.
* Season one of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' has featured a manticore (in episode 2), a griffin (in episode 5), and a cockatrice (in episode 17). Discord, the villain of the season 2 premiere "The Return of Harmony", is a vaguely dragon-like creature called a "Draconequus" with the head of a pony and a mish-mash of other animal parts, including a pair of mismatched antlers, a lion's paw, an eagle's talon, and a snake's tail.
* Penny, Gumball's girlfriend from ''[[The Amazing World of Gumball]]'', is an anthropomorphic peanut with antlers.
** Non-anthropomorphic animals are often this trope to the extreme.
* The inhabitants of Tulgey Wood from ''[[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'', which include Bread-and-Butterflies, Rocking-Horseflies, Dog-and-Caterpillars, pencil birds, hammer birds, [[Visual Pun|umbrella birds]], cage birds, mirror birds, glasses birds, accordion owls, honker ducks, cymbal frogs, timpani frogs, and a broom dog.
* [[Cat Dog]].
* One scene in ''[[Duck Amuck]]'' had the animator erase [[Daffy Duck]]'s entire body, leaving only his head. Daffy then gets angry at him and tells him to draw his body back. The animator doesn't listen, and as a result he instead redraws Daffy as a bizarre quadruped with a flower-shaped head, mismatched feet, and a flagpole for a tail, with Daffy's flag displaying a screw and a ball. The animator then draws a mirror in front of Daffy, causing him to freak out after seeing his reflection.
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== Real Life ==
* The [[Everything's Better Withwith Platypi|platypus]], an animal originally considered so bizarre that it was dismissed as a hoax. It seems fairly benign today, but imagine someone in 1798 receiving pelts of a creature that looked like [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Platypus-sketch.jpg equal parts duck, beaver and otter] that also laid eggs. And that was before the male was discovered to be ''venomous''.
** The platypus injects its venom through the spurs on its FEET. While not stolen from another animal, it is still a damn freaky thing to do.
** The female, on the other hand, ''sweats milk''. And both of them can sense electric fields...
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** Speaking of the Greeks, in the unknown land, anything goes. People with dogs' heads, people walking on their hands...
* It was believed for a long time that African and Asian elephants couldn't interbreed. This was proved wrong by the rather unexpected pregnancy of an Asian female in a zoo where the only males were the African variety. The resulting offspring, born in 1978, had physical traits of both varieties, but unfortunately died of septicaema aged 12 days.
* Ligers ([[Napoleon Dynamite|bred for their skills in magic, of course]]) and tigons. [[The Wizard of Oz (Filmfilm)|(And bears, oh my!)]] Hoo-boy, let's not even start on [[wikipedia:Felid hybrid|hybrid cats]].
** But let's start on the ligers' less fictious claims to awesomeness: mane (the beard of the animal kingdom), golden striped color scheme, being [[Gentle Giant|twice the size of a tiger, and gentle demeanor]].
* Kirk Cameron's fictitious "Crocoduck", which he believes [[Strawman Political|scientists believe]] would be the [[Artistic License Biology|ultimate proof of evolution]].