Ancient Bison (Bison antiquus)
In his excavations at Big Bone Lick in 1807, William Clark collected a substantial quantity of bones belonging to the "Mammoth" (American mastodon), "elephant" (woolly mammoth) and other ungulates (hoofed mammals) (1). Among these were some limb bones, jaw fragments and a skull fragment of a "cow or buffalo."
The Big Bone Lick fossil (after Leidy, 1852)
These latter fossils were essentially ignored until 1852, when Joseph Leidy (2) identified the skull fragment as belonging to a new species of bison, Bison antiquus. Because the skull fragment he studied only consisted of the left horn core and a small portion of the cranium, Leidy was uncertain whether it actually represented a new species. After all, the more complete remains of another extinct bison (Bison latifrons) was collected only a few miles from Big Bone Lick (3). Later authorities have confirmed Bison antiquus is distinct from Bison latifrons, although there is some debate as to whether the Big Bone Lick bison is a separate species (B. antiquus) or a subspecies of the modern American bison (Bison bison).
Bison antiquus, known as either the ancient bison or antique bison, is believed to be the direct ancestor of the two subspecies of the modern American bison: the plains bison (B. bison bison) and the wood bison (B. bison athabascae). Ancient bison probably evolved from steppe bison (Bison priscus) that became isolated from Beringia (Alaska, Yukon and eastern Siberia) with the onset of the Wisconsinian glaciation (about 71,000 years ago). Its range during the late Pleistocene extended from southern Canada into Mexico and from coast to coast. Ancient bison fossils are common at many sites and mass graves resulting from paleoindian hunts have been found at some western localities. Some of these mass graves contain the remains of up to 200 individuals.
The ancient bison was somewhat larger than the modern subspecies, but a trend towards smaller body size is indicated by some early Holocene (10,000-6,000 years ago) intermediates that are usually assigned to a separate subspecies, the western bison (Bison bison occidentalis). Some authors contend that hunting by paleoindians was a driving force in this size reduction, but a similarly post-Pleistocene trend has been noted for the steppe bison in Eurasia (4).
The earliest members of the genus Bison appeared in Eurasia during the Pliocene (2-5 million years ago). The fossil record of the most common and widely distributed species, the steppe bison (Bison pricus) extends from at least 700,000 to about 20,000 years ago. Frequently depicted in Ice Age cave art from Western Europe (e.g., Altimira), the steppe bison entered North America via Beringia sometime between 300,000 to 150,000 years ago; its appearance in Alaska is regarded as the beginning of the Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age. There appears to have been two major migrations south from Beringia into the rest of North America. The first wave probably dates to the Yarmouthian interglacial, while the second wave probably occurred late in the Sangamonian interglacial or early in the Wisconsinan glacial. Steppe bison became widely distributed south of the ice sheets following these migrations but were apparently replaced by the two native species, ancient bison (Bison antiquus) and the long-horned bison (Bison latifrons).
Rear (top) and dorsal (bottom) views of a skull fragment
of the long-horned bison (Bison latifrons) (after Leidy, 1852)
The long-horned bison was a large native bison with enormous horns. In males, these horns extended nearly 7 ft (2.1 m) from tip to tip. In contrast, the horn span in modern bison is typically about 2 ft (0.6 m). Some authorities believe that the long-horned bison evolved from the steppe bison ancestors that moved south during the Yarmouthian interglacial. It disappeared sometime between 30,000 and 21,000 years ago. The ancient bison may have evolved from steppe bison that arrived during the later migration.
The American bison (Bison bison) is one of two surviving species of bison. The other is the wisent or European bison (Bison bonasus). Both species have been severely depleted by humans. Approximately 65,000 American bison survive in North America while only about 3,000 wisent survive in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
Web Pages:
- Animal Diversity Web's web page on the American Bison:
animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/
information/Bison_bison.html - Yukon Beringia.com's web page on the Steppe Bison:
www.beringia.com/02/02maina8.html -
Discover North Dakota's pdf on Bison latifrons:
discovernd.com/ndgs/Newsletter/NLW02-03/PDF/bison.pdf - Page Museum's (La Brea Tarpits) web page on Ancient Bison:
www.tarpits.org/education/guide/flora/bison.html - Tour Cantabria's web page on Cave Art at Altamira:
www.turcantabria.com/Datos/Historia-Arte/
Cuevas/Cuevas Altamira/altamira-i.htm
Print Resources:
- Kurtén, B. and E. Anderson. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Lang, I.A. 2002. Ice Age Mammals of North America: A Guide to the Big, the Hairy, and the Bizarre. Missoula: Mounain Press.
- Leidy, Joseph. 1852. "Memoir on the extinct species of American ox". Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge 5(3). 20 pp.
- Martin, Paul S. 1967. "Prehistoric overkill," in Pleistocene Extinctions: The Search for a Cause, eds. Paul S. Martin and Herbert E. Wright, Jr. New Haven: Yale University Press.
- Peale, Rembrandt. 1803. "Account of some remains of a species of gigantic oxen found in America and other parts of the world." Philosphical Magazine, 15: 325-327.
Notes:
- In 1807, William Clark (of Lewis and Clark fame) led an expedition to Big Bone Lick, Kentucky to retrieve fossils of the "Mammoth" (American mastodon). Almost all of the specimens in the Thomas Jefferson Fossil Collection came from this expedition. See Discovering the Mastodon: Fossils in the White House for more information. [go back]
- Joseph Leidy (1823-1891) was a leading paleontologist, zoologist and anatomist during the 19th century. See the Academy's Online Exhibit on Joseph Leidy. [go back]
- The fossil for Bison latifrons was collected by Samuel Brown of Kentucky and donated to the American Philosophical Society. Rembrandt Peale wrote an article on the specimen in 1803 in which he identifies it as an "ox or buffalo". [go back]
- The idea that human hunters caused the extinction of large mammals (megafauna) at the end of the Pleistocene first emerged among scientists early in the 19th century, but generally lost favor in the ensuing decades. The idea was rejuvenated in 1967 by Paul Martin. His "Blitzkreig" hypothesis proposed that the rapid die-off of North American megafauna following the retreat of the continental glaciers resulted from the entry of human hunters armed with lethal Clovis spear point technology. The theory is hotly debated by its many supportes and critics. See the National Humanities Center's web page on Paleoindian Pleistocene Overkill or Steven William's essay on Pleistocene Megafauna Extinctions for more information. [go back]