American Bison (Bison bison) Fact Sheet: Taxonomy & History

• Scientific name: Bison comes from the Latin word "bison" meaning "wild ox".
• Originally named Bos bison by Linneaus, for its likeness to cattle.
• Despite the many anatomical similarities between extinct and modern bison, in 1825 Cuvier distinguished three bison species (McDonald 1981):
  • Living European bison
  • Living North American bison
  • An extinct American bison
• Some 14 North American species were named prior to 1852 when Leidy studied available specimens and described two fossil species and recognized one living species of bison.
• Bison taxonomy underwent a long period of taxonomic splitting that resulted in some 10 fossil species recognized in North America by Skinner and Kaisen in 1947. (McDonald 1981)
  • This taxonomy in great need of revision and clarification (McDonald 1981) (Prusak et al 2004)
• Some authorities have classified bison with the cattle genus Bos, other authorities do not. (Nowak 1999) (Prusak 2004)
• Relationship of modern American bison and the European bison is unclear at present, but both are quite similar genetically and can interbreed; despite this fact, they should still be considered separate species. (Prusak et al 2004)
• Modern North American bison have two recognized subspecies: the American Plains Bison (B. b. bison) and the American Wood Bison (B. b. athabascae) (McDonald 1981) (Prusak et al 2004)

• Even-toed hoofed mammals trace their ancestry back to at least 45 million years ago (Eocene).
• Bison diverged from cattle a few million years ago or less; phylogenies are poorly understood due to much genetic variation within species. (Buntjer et al 2002)
• The Bison genus first appeared in southern Asia, around 2 million years ago (McDonald 1981)
• Bison priscuswas the ancestor of at least some of the North American bison. (Prusak et al 2004)
  • This species flourished in northern Eurasia and Alaska and may have been the dominant hoofed mammal there (Guthrie 1970)
• Bison immigrated to North America several times in the Pleistocene Epoch during times of low sea levels when exposed land connected North America and Asia.
• B. latifrons appeared by 500,000 years ago in North American and survived until around 20,000 years ago.
• The first appearance of B. antiquus in North America was around 250,000 years ago. (Jefferson 2001)
• The B. antiquusline may have led to modern American Plains Bison (Prusak et al 2004)
  • McDonald (1981) suggests this speciation occurred around 5,000 years ago.
• European bison may be descendants of Pleistocene bison that returned to Europe from North America. (McDonald 1981) (Prusak et al 2004)
• B. latifrons became extinct around 20,000 years ago. (McDonald 1981)
• All bison nearly became extinct in North America at the end of the Pleistocene when much of the other megafauna did become extinct (McDonald 1981)
• Modern bison in America (Bison bison) and Europe (Bison bonasus) are genetically very closely related. (Prusak et al 2004)

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Artiodactyla* (or Cetartiodactyla) (Even-toed hoofed animals: includes pigs, sheep goats, cattle, deer)

Family: Bovidae (Cattle, water buffalo, bison, antelopes, goats, sheep and more)

Genus: Bison

Species: Bison bison - American bison

Subspecies: Bison bison bison - American Plains Bison
Subspecies: Bison bison athabascae - Wood Bison

Buntjer et al. (2002)
Guthrie (1970)
Meagher (1986)
McDonald (1981)
(Prusak et al. (2004)
Nowak (1999)