Photo of a reproduction cave painting named Felines located at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, USA. The original painting is from Chauvet Cave, France, and estimated to date from around 30,000 BC.

From afar, I have to be honest in saying I always thought this to be the outlines of a butterfly (or moth). I've been volunteering at the Smithsonian for 10+ years, and never really gave it a second thought. I took the butterfly for granted, it had become a no-brainer. Until that is I finally got around to taking a photo and processing it, 10+ years later... and it wasn't so much the photo of this reproduction cave painting that got my attention; it was the interpretive sign next to it that read Felines, thereby shattering my preconception of a butterfly 🦋😔

All I had to do was look in closer to make out a number of cat faces in profile perspective, at least five of them by my count. Quite neat really, but it still left me wondering: what about the butterfly? It's not like I can unsee the wings & antennae even after discovering the cat faces. It's almost as if there's an interesting optical illusion going on, but I think it turned out to be more of a happy accident for this exhibit in particular; where they chose to focus on a specific portion of the original cave painting, and crop out other parts. For comparison to the original cave painting, feel free check out the Lion Panel photo from le Musée d'Archéologie nationale (French National Archaeology Museum).