Bison antiquus

Extinct species of mammal

Bison antiquus, the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. Bison antiquus was one of the most common large herbivores in Late Pleistocene North America. It is a direct ancestor of the living American bison.

The first described remains of Bison antiquus were collected at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky in Pleistocene deposits in the 1850s and only consisted of a fragmentary posterior skull and a nearly complete horn core. The fossil (ANSP 12990) was briefly described by Joseph Leidy in 1852. Although the original fossils were fragmentary, a complete skull of an old male was discovered in southern California and were described as a new species, B. californicus, by Samuel Rhoads in 1897, but the species is considered synonymous with B. antiquus. Since the 19th century, several well preserved specimens of B. antiquus have been discovered in many parts of the United States, Canada, and southern Mexico.

B. antiquus was taller, had larger bones and horns, and was 15 to 25% larger overall than modern bison. It reached up to tall, long, and a weight of , with an average of around The horns were on average across tip to tip, but could be as much as across.

Around 195,000 130,000 years ago, the steppe bison (Bison priscus) crossed the Bering Land Bridge into North America. In North America, B. priscus evolved into the large long horned Bison latifrons, which then gave rise to B. antiquus sometime prior to 60,000 years ago. B. antiquus became increasingly abundant in parts of midcontinent North America from 18,000 until about 10,000 years ago.

One of the best educational sites to view in situ semifossilized skeletons of over 500 individuals of B. antiquus is the Hudson Meng archeological site operated by the U. S. Forest Service, 18 mile (29 km) northwest of Crawford, Nebraska. A number of paleo Indian spear and projectile points have been recovered in conjunction with the animal skeletons at the site, which is dated around 9,700 to 10,000 years ago. The reason for the "die off" of so many animals in one compact location is still in conjecture; some professionals argue it was the result of a very successful paleo Indian hunt, while others feel the herd died as a result of some dramatic natural event, to be later scavenged by humans. Individuals of B. antiquus of both sexes and a typical range of ages have been found at the site. B. antiquus may have been hunted by Clovis people in North and South Carolina, based on blood residue from Clovis points. According to internationally renowned archaeologist George Carr Frison, B. occidentalis and B. antiquus both survived the Late Pleistocene period, between about 12,000 and 11,000 years ago, dominated by glaciation (the Wisconsin glaciation in North America), when many other megafauna became extinct. After the extinction of most of the North American megafauna, Native Americans of the Plains and Rocky Mountains depended largely on bison as their major food source. Frison noted, "[the] oldest, well documented bison kills by pedestrian human hunters in North America date to about 11,000 years ago." B. antiquus fossils were found in Washington State in recent years, with apparent fracture patterns on bones consistent with stone tools as opposed to carnivorous activity.

The living American bison (Bison bison) is suggested to have evolved from Bison antiquus in central North America at the very end of the Pleistocene. The last populations of B. antiquus became extinct during the early Holocene, around 10,000 years ago.