Bison latifrons

Bison latifrons, also known as the giant bison or long-horned bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America during the Late Pleistocene epoch ranging from southern Canada to Mexico. It is noted for its large body size and distinctive long horns.

Bison latifrons

James St. John · CC BY 2.0 · 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
Length
4.75 mWikidata
Mass
2000 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 1 of 36 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 35 of 36 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 36 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 1.0 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 21 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

36 occurrences of Bison latifrons 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

36 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

8 formations

Good Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°WFloral — 52.10°N, 106.70°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.62°N, 117.93°WSappa — 41.20°N, 96.60°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WEdith — 35.33°N, 106.55°W

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Bison latifrons has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 24 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bison latifrons and its relatives

Pleistocene

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

Found in the same rock

450 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 36 sites for Bison latifrons, 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

30 references

Each of the 36 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. 18 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 latifrons

Credit
James St. John
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D scan

Licence
CC0 — this site’s default, not the record’s
Commercial use
the licence allows it
Specimen
Bison latifrons

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

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. (Harlan 1825)