The winged lion—yep, just what it sounds like—is a powerful beast. As if a lion wasn’t strong enough on its own!

I would not want to be a zebra on that lion’s menu.

Representations have been found all through ancient and Medieval cultures.

There were different mythological adaptions for the winged lion. Sumerian, Akkadian, Persian, and Iranian tribes depicted a mythological god this way.

It’s the heraldic symbol of Mark the Evangelist. The first beast in the first vision of the Prophet Daniel resembled it.

Perhaps my favorite (other than that statue) is King Moonracer in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winged_lion
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pomn%C3%ADk_%C4%8Ds._letc%C5%AF_v_Anglii_Praha_Kl%C3%A1rov_-_lev_3-4_profil_zprava.JPG

Can you imagine the way African wildlife would have evolved if lions had wings?  Do you know of other examples of this kind of creature?