What would be the proper latin terminology for half-human anatomy configurations?

Many half-human mythological creatures follow a few common anatomical schemes.

• Some consist of an animal with a human face, such as the sphinx, naga and manticore.
• Some consist of a human anterior and animal posterior, such as the satyr, faun, ipotane and mermaid.
• Some consist of an animal whose head has been replaced with a human torso, such as the centaur.

Using latin as the source language a la Linnaean taxonomy, what would be a logical terminology for unambiguously distinguishing between these body types?

EDIT: The answers I've been getting have been really great. I was inspired to do some more research and discovered some Latin, Greek and "New Latin" vocabulary as an alternative to linguistically correct terms.

• Semifer and Semihomo, Latin synonyms for half-beast half-human hybrids.
• Theropod, or "beast-footed", referring to theropod dinosaurs, but could easily be repurposed to distinguish satyrs, fauns, ipotanes, mermaids, cilophytes, etc. In these hybrids the body sections are joined at the pelvis.
• Therocephalian, "beast-headed", referring to a suborder of eutheriodont therapsids, but could easily be repurposed to distinguish animal-headed Egyptian and Vedic deities, minotaurs, werewolves, reverse mermaids, etc. In these hybrids the head is animal and the body is humanoid.
• Anthro(po)cephalus, "human-headed", used for a variety of species names, but could easily be repurposed to distinguish sphinxes, naga, shedu, lamasu, etc. In these hybrids the head is human and the body is animal.
• Cephalothorax inversus, of my own coinage, could refer to centaurs, khepri, etc. The phrase works by analogy: where a cephalothorax is a torso with a head and face in the chest, the inversion is a torso sprouting from where the head and face would be. In these hybrids the head of one parent is replaced with the torso of the other; unlike the theropods the join is between pelvis and clavicle.

posted almost 8 years ago

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