[DogByte6RER]

[Inyo-Mono]

I seriously doubt that it took that long to carve. Were any of these conservators actually real artists?

[DogByte6RER]

Ping

[Standing Wolf]

Frisky the wonder tigress just hopped into my lap to let me know she told me so and remind me we're being punished with four more years of President You Didn't Build That because two-leggers don't give kitties enough treats.

Settles that, I guess.

[PAR35]

"although paleontologist Elisabeth Schmid controversially argued that it was female"

Was she blind, or was she a spinster who never saw a male or a picture of one? It's obviously equipped as a male.

[Conservative4Ever]

Beautiful piece of work.

[bunkerhill7]

It`s not a lion- It`s a tiger; look at the stripes. duhhhh.

[TigersEye]

Pretty nice workmanship. Imagine what it would be worth if it were for sale on the open market.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Ancient Alien theorists claim it is a cave man's representation of a hybrid lion/human created by extraterrestrials through cloning.

[ApplegateRanch]

Larry Niven is a prophet: that is a Kzinti warrior! Obviously they visited Earth some 40,000 years ago.

[SueRae]

Beautiful..almost looks like its smiling.

[arthurus]

This makes it the world’s earliest figurative sculpture.

This makes it the world’s earliest known figurative sculpture.

It is always assumed that the earliest thing found is the earliest that ever was. For individual pieces it doesn't start 'wars" when something a bit earlier is found and confirmed. For larger things, like cities and populations, that assumption of "earliest" and "oldest" becomes a line defended to the death of the generation of archaeologists that made that determination of "earliest."