Egyptian hieroglyphs include a vast number of ideograms depicting animals, both real and mythical, and parts of animals. Plants are depicted too, but they are often so stylised it is difficult to see what they were intended to represent.
Hierolgyphic script was only used for special occasions and expensive items, such as high quality funerary goods and manuscripts, because it was so difficult to write. Grammar was very complicated and there were hundreds of separate ideograms which could stand for one word or one syllable depending on context. Scribes had to train for years just to be able to accurately copy manuscripts. Artists also seem to have had a basic knowledge of the ideograms, as the stylised signs themselves appear frequently within vignettes depicted in tomb paintings and temples, even in jewellery (see Wilkinson: Reading Egyptian Art)
The English Egyptologist Sir Alan Gardiner created a table of signs which he divided up thematically in terms of what the ideograms depicted, which includes a number of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and plants. This is useful for a number of reasons; it provides a comprehensive list of creatures that were recognisable to ancient Egyptians, but it also it provides a quick glossary to the stylised forms.
It's interesting to note that the vast majority of the creatures depicted are real animals rather than mythical beasts, with the benu bird and the Seth animal being notable exceptions (although even the benu bird is based largely on a heron).
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