The Lewis depiction clearly shows a creature with scales
- A man-like face with horns and flowing whiskers. (It is in the lower left of the depiction, where one would expect to see a lung’s face in a typical two-lung motif.)
- Parts of perhaps two sinuous bodies with scales.
- Five-toed claws. (A bird would have four toes. A Native American artist, familiar with nature, would never have made this mistake. However, the Imperial lung had five toes.)
- The Lewis depiction clearly shows a creature with scales. Because of the preconception that the Piasa was a bird, they have been misidentified as feathers. Marquette reported well-defined scales.
- The general outline of large bodies in the upper yellow void.
- A monumental stone arch carved flat into the bluff, which served as the medium upon which the two monsters were carved.
With these key elements identified, the disembodied parts then fall into their proper places and enable an artist to reconstruct the lost original form.
