Bison

A bison is a large bovine in the genus Bison within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised.

Bison

Jack Dykinga · Public Domain · 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
Also called
bisonPBDB
Sits inside
BoviniPBDB
Diet
grazerPBDB
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Bovidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Artiodactyla

Time the record covers

At least 2.5 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 7.246 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 322 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 5 of 322 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 308 of 322 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 8 of 322 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 0.1 occurrences5.2–4.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.9–4.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.6–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–4.1 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.9–3.6 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences3.4–3.1 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences3.1–2.8 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.8–2.6 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.6–2.3 Mya — about 12 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 12 occurrences2.1–1.8 Mya — about 12 occurrences1.8–1.5 Mya — about 13 occurrences1.5–1.3 Mya — about 14 occurrences1.3–1.0 Mya — about 16 occurrences1.0–775 ka Mya — about 16 occurrences775 ka–516 ka Mya — about 28 occurrences516 ka–258 ka Mya — about 28 occurrences258 ka–0 Mya — about 165 occurrences2.58 Mya11.7 ka7.7 Mya0 Mya

322 occurrences of Bison on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

322 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

29 formations

Palos Verdes Sand — 34.00°N, 118.20°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.60°N, 117.80°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.66°N, 117.90°WPalos Verdes Sand — 33.62°N, 117.93°WPlatanochori — 40.57°N, 23.47°EPlatanochori — 40.53°N, 23.37°EPlatanochori — 40.62°N, 23.38°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EFloral — 52.21°N, 106.58°WFloral — 50.80°N, 103.90°WFloral — 52.10°N, 106.70°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°EUnterer Travertin — 50.98°N, 11.31°EGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WGerakarou — 40.52°N, 23.44°ESappa — 41.20°N, 96.60°WTacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WWicomico — 29.60°N, 82.42°WDon Beds — 43.80°N, 79.30°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WRiverbank — 38.60°N, 121.50°WLatamne — 35.13°N, 36.75°ESergeyevsk suite — 50.00°N, 86.67°EKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°EOberer Travertin II — 50.97°N, 11.35°EOteobetsugawa — 43.15°N, 141.51°ESilver Bluff — 32.56°N, 80.29°WKidluit — 69.50°N, 133.91°WEdith — 35.33°N, 106.55°WTen Mile Hill Beds — 32.98°N, 80.17°W

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The named rock units Bison has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 272 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Bison and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Bison and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,616 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 304 sites for Bison, and this reads 240 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

204 references

Each of the 322 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. 192 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 content2

Picture of Bison

Credit
Jack Dykinga
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

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

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

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 itBovini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Hamilton-Smith 1827