500-year-old lion drawing in Puerto Rican cave may have been made by an enslaved African

Photo of a large cave wall with lion drawing and green damp moss color at the bottom. Bearded male researcher in a blue coat and red hard hat stands to the right side.

Cave art of a lion with a luscious mane drawn deep in a Puerto Rican cave about 500 years ago might have been created by an enslaved African, new research suggests.

"We have an image that looks like a lion — but in Puerto Rico, we don't have lions," project researcher Angel Acosta-Colón, an adjunct professor of geophysics at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo and an expert on the island's caves, said in a statement.