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Image 1
Carved Kirin Mask
In Japan the unicorn is called the kirin. This kirin mask has a hinged jaw and was likely used in Japanese festivals at the beginning of the twentieth century.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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Image 2
Griffin Statue
The griffin is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle. As the lion was considered the "king of the beasts" and the eagle the "king of the air," the griffin was often thought to be an especially powerful and majestic creature. This figure, carved in the manner of carousel horses, was made by Joe Leonard, a noted contemporary American woodcarver.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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Image 3
Protoceratops
Millions of years before humans arrived in the Gobi, some parts of the desert were home to strange animals that seemed to combine body parts of eagles and lions. But these animals weren't griffins; they were dinosaurs. Certain areas in the Gobi are littered with dinosaur bones, including those of the four-legged, beaked Protoceratops. Ancient gold miners working in the desert may have seen these fossils—and perhaps based their descriptions of griffins on them.
© Mick Ellison/AMNH
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Image 4
Chupacabra
Chupacabra means "goat sucker" in Spanish and according to reports, the creature acts much like a vampire, killing animals by sucking their blood. Though similar stories date back several decades, the first major wave of alleged sightings came from farmers in Puerto Rico in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The fanged creature can also be spotted on T-shirts, coffee mugs, and other souvenir items.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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Image 5
Dragon model
This 17-foot-long dragon with a wingspan of over 19 feet guards the entrance to Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, a new special exhibition at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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Image 6
Kraken model
This kraken, a mythical sea monster, has 12-foot-long tentacles that appear to rise out of the floor of The Cleveland Museum of Natural History in a new special exhibition, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids, as if surfacing from the sea.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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Image 7
Unicorn model
This white unicorn, 10 feet long from tail to tip of horn, is featured in a new special exhibition at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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Image 8
Gigantopithecus model
Enormous apes are more than a myth. This reconstructed massive creature called the Gigantopithecus is an extinct primate—a very distant relative of humans that lived in southeast Asia for almost a million years, until perhaps as recently as 300,000 years ago.
© D. Finnin/AMNH
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