Talk:Sphinx/@comment-33544229-20191221154832/@comment-24018437-20191222124138

Manes and sabres are found in multiple creatures though. While the most famous sabretooth creature is the Smilodon (the stereotypical sabretooth tiger), there were many other animals with sabreteeth, and they weren't all related to one another. Even nowadays there are animals with sabres that aren't related to one another. Just look at musk deer. Common traits can be found in multiple creatures. The sabres of the Manticore are more like that of a stereotypical Smilodon, while those of the Sphinx are more like those of a 'lesser sabre' such as a Dinofelis.

As for the Sphinx, here's the thing: while we all think of the Sphinx as a woman-faced lion, there were actually many different types of Sphinx across various mythologies, with the human-faced version just being the famous. Sphinxes with snakes for tails also existed. As did Sphinxes with falcon-heads or ram-heads rather then human faces. And winged variaties also existed in these mythologies.

Heck, even the Manticore has different versions across mythologies. It can be found with dragon wings, bird wings or no wings at all. A common theme was that, like the Sphinx, it had a human face. And they didn't always have a scorpion-like tail. Some versions of the Manticore had snake tails (as in, just scaly tails, not a snake's head like the Sphinx has), forked dragon tails, spiked tails, a tail with the 'rattle' of a crested porcupine at the end of it and, of course, the scorpion's stinger that RWBY's manticore has.

It seems like RWBY used various traits of different Manticores and Sphinxes and used them to make their own version (bull horns are, as far as I know, not found in that many traditional Manticore myths) of the two creatures, while getting rid of the human features they often have. Granted, the Sphinx have a bit of a flatter head, though I've always thought it looked kinda like the head of a lynx.