Heated Debate Erupts Over Whether Griffin Should Have Eagle Head or Lion Head

The 47th Annual Conference of Heraldic Beast Standardization collapsed into disorder Saturday when Dr. Reginald Talbot of the University of Blois proposed a 'dual-headed griffin' combining both eagle and lion features in the head region. 'What I'm suggesting,' said Talbot, before being drowned out by sustained booing, 'is that we acknowledge the griffin has always been a composite creature and perhaps its head could reflect that duality.' The proposal was met with what conference organizers described as 'the most intense scholarly violence we've seen since the wyvern wing count debate of 2008.' Traditionalists insisted the griffin's eagle head is its defining characteristic. 'Without the eagle head, it's just a lion with wings,' said Professor Marian Sejant of the Royal Heraldic Academy. 'And we already have a word for that. It's called a disaster.' Progressives countered that heraldic beasts have evolved before, citing the sixteenth-century decision to add a fish tail to the sea-lion. 'If we can give a lion a fish tail, we can give a griffin two heads,' argued delegate Felix Passant-Guardant. The debate reached its nadir when someone projected a hastily photoshopped image of a two-headed griffin onto the conference screen. Three attendees fainted. One delegate from the Austrian Heraldic Society was escorted out after attempting to physically restrain the projector. The conference has been suspended indefinitely. A formal vote on the matter has been scheduled for 2027, though organizers concede it 'will almost certainly end the same way.'