Steppe bison
The steppe bison,[1] or steppe wisent (Bison priscus), is an extinct bison. It lived on steppes in Europe, Central Asia, Beringia, and North America during the Quaternary. It is believed that it evolved somewhere in South Asia, That would mean it appeared at about the same time and region as the aurochs, with which its descendants are sometimes confused.
| Steppe bison Temporal range: Irvingtonian to Holocene
| |
|---|---|
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| "Blue Babe", a mummified specimen from Alaska | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Genus: | Bison |
| Species: | †B. priscus
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| Binomial name | |
| Bison priscus Bojanus, 1827
| |
The steppe wisent became extinct in the Pleistocene. It was replaced in Europe by the modern wisent species. It was replaced in America by Bison latifrons, then later Bison antiquus), and finally the modern American bison.[2]
Steppe wisent occasionally appear in cave painting. They are in the famous Cave of Altamira and Lascaux. They have also been found in naturally ice-preserved form.[2][3]
References
change- ↑ Steppe Bison – Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre Archived 2010-12-12 at the Wayback Machine. Beringia.com. Retrieved on 2013-05-31.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Verkaar E.L.C.; et al. (2004). "Maternal and paternal lineages in cross-breeding bovine species. Has Wisent a hybrid origin?". Molecular Biology and Evolution. 21 (7): 1165–70. doi:10.1093/molbev/msh064. PMID 14739241.
- ↑ Dale Guthrie, R (1989). Frozen fauna of the Mammoth steppe: the story of Blue Babe. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226311234.