Bison priscus

The steppe bison is an extinct species of bison which lived from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. During the Late Pleistocene, it was widely distributed across the mammoth steppe, ranging from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America.

Bison priscus

Bernt Rostad from Oslo, Norway · 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

Time the record covers

At least 645 thousand years on record.

The record covers at least 774 ka to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Miocene — about 0 of 39 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 39 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 38 of 39 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 39 occurrences7.5–7.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.2–7.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.0–6.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.7–6.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.5–6.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences6.2–5.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.9–5.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.7–5.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.4–5.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 2 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 2 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 6 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 14 occurrences774 ka – 129 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

39 occurrences of Bison priscus 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

39 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

4 formations

Unterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°EUnterer Travertin — 50.98°N, 11.31°EAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WLatamne — 35.13°N, 36.75°EOberer Travertin II — 50.97°N, 11.35°E

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The named rock units Bison priscus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 33 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bison priscus and its relatives

Pleistocene

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

Found in the same rock

355 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 38 sites for Bison priscus, 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

25 references

Each of the 39 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. 13 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 priscus

Credit
Bernt Rostad from Oslo, Norway
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Bison priscus · NHMUK:PAL:PV M 15712

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
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. (Bojanus 1827)