Praeovibos priscus
Praeovibos, also known as the giant muskox, is an extinct genus of bovid that contains a single species, Praeovibos priscus. It is closely related to the living muskox, and is placed as a part of the same tribe Ovibovini.

Tylwyth Eldar · 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
- PraeovibosPBDB
- Diet
- grazer, browserPBDB, for Bovidae
- Life habit
- ground dwellingPBDB, for Bovidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla
Time the record covers
At most 5.4 million years on record.
Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 11.7 ka, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.
7 occurrences of Praeovibos 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
7 occurrences- Pliocene15%
- Pleistocene85%
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.
Praeovibos priscus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Praeovibos priscus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
80 taxa- Equus5 sites
- Mammuthus trogontherii4 sites
- Mimomys4 sites
- Bison3 sites
- Cervalces latifrons3 sites
- Sus scrofa3 sites
- Trogontherium cuvieri3 sites
- Bison priscus2 sites
- Canis lupus2 sites
- Castor fiber2 sites
- Cervus2 sites
- Equus (Sussemionus) suessenbornensis2 sites
- Homotherium2 sites
- Megaloceros2 sites
- Microtus2 sites
- Microtus (Stenocranius)2 sites
- Panthera gombaszoegensis2 sites
- Rangifer tarandus2 sites
- Soergelia2 sites
- Ursus2 sites
- Ursus deningeri2 sites
- Allocricetus1 site
- Allophaiomys pliocaenicus1 site
- Aonyx antiqua1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Praeovibos 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
4 references- Mittelpleistozane Saugetierfaunen aus Mitteleuropa - der Versuch einer biostratigraphischen Zuordnung3
- Säugetierfunde und Pleistozänstratigraphie in der Kolyma-Niederung (Pleistocene stratigraphy from the Kolyma fluvial plain and it's mammal fossils)2
- Maasvlakte I - Bronvan informatie voor paleontologen en archeologen1
- Early Middle Pleistocene mammalian faunas from Karlich (Kaerlich) and Miesenheim I and their biostratigraphical implications1
Each of the 7 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. Each entry links to the Paleobiology Database's own record for the work.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Praeovibos priscus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Tylwyth Eldar
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Praeovibos priscus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Praeovibos”
- 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 itPraeovibos through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Staudinger 1908