Steppe wisent

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Steppe wisent
Temporal range: Pleistocene
1.8 mya – 11,000 ya
Bison priscus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Bovidae
Subfamily: Bovinae
Genus: Bison
Binomial name
Bison priscus
Cave painting in Altamira, Spain

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.

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 | change source]

  1. Steppe Bison – Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre. Retrieved on 2013-05-31.
  2. 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.
  3. Dale Guthrie, R (1989). Frozen fauna of the Mammoth steppe: the story of Blue Babe. ISBN 9780226311234.