Colorado animal head in petrified wood with worked eye, nose and mouth is likely symbolic of the North American Lion

"Animal head," Chris Schram find, Westminster, Colorado, in context of dozens of figurative portable rock art creations. The eye, nose and mouth have flake scars which indicate this is a sculpted artifact and not a freak of nature.

Reconstructed illustration of what the North American Lion head may have looked like. The animal became extinct at the end of the Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. Please note the "squared off muzzle" which may also be seen in the Chris Schram animal head figure.

Ceramic mammoth and lion head figures, Dolni Vestonice, Moravia, Czech Republic. Dated to ca. 25,000 years before present.

Possible mammoth figure identified by Chris Schram along with the possible lion head. The precision and smoothness of the ceramic figures is contrasted against the rougher imagery resulting from work in petrified wood. The importance is these animals were significant enough to both Europeans and North Americans in the Ice Age that they committed the imagery to objects of art.