Bison antiquus

Bison antiquus is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America during the Late Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene from over 60,000 years ago until around 10,000 years ago. Bison antiquus was one of the most common large herbivores in North America during this time period. It is the direct ancestor of the living American bison.

Bison antiquus

Nikhil Iyengar · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
BisonPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB, for Bison
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Bovidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Mass
1588 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 198 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 210 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.

Pliocene — about 0 of 51 occurrencesPleistocene — about 46 of 51 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 5 of 51 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.4–2.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.1–2.0 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences2.0–1.8 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.8–1.7 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.4–1.3 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences1.3–1.2 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.1–1.0 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences1.0–924 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences924 ka–821 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences821 ka–719 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences719 ka–616 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences616 ka–513 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences513 ka–411 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences411 ka–308 ka Mya — about 0.6 occurrences308 ka–205 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences205 ka–103 ka Mya — about 9 occurrences103 ka–0 Mya — about 30 occurrences210 ka – 11.7 ka3.08 Mya0 Mya

51 occurrences of Bison antiquus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

51 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

3 formations

Wicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WRiverbank — 38.60°N, 121.50°WSilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°W

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The named rock units Bison antiquus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 48 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bison antiquus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Bison antiquus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

521 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 49 sites for Bison antiquus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

39 references

Each of the 51 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 27 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Bison antiquus

Credit
Nikhil Iyengar
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Laser scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Bison antiquus · ansp:vp:12990

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Credit
paleomoe
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itBison through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leidy 1852