Which animals became common in later Paleolithic cave paintings such as those at Lascaux?
In the later stages of the Upper Paleolithic period, the subjects of cave art shifted from the formidable, often extinct species depicted in earlier millennia toward a different set of animals. In sites such as Lascaux and Niaux, the animals that became prevalent include:
At Lascaux specifically, these depictions are highly varied. The cave features numerous horses, huge aurochs, red deer with elaborate antlers, stags that appear to be swimming, and a series of felines, alongside the iconic bulls found in the Hall of Bulls. While earlier Paleolithic art often focused on animals like cave lions, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses, and cave bears, these later compositions reflect a transition in the species most frequently represented by human artists.12