Bison latifrons Harlan, 1825 - fossil buffalo skull (cast) from the Pleistocene of North America. (public display, Sternberg Museum of Natural History, Hays, Kansas, USA)
The extinct giant buffalo, Bison latifrons, was remarkable in having horns with a greater than 3 times longer span than the modern American buffalo (Bison bison). The overall body size of the giant buffalo was also considerably larger than modern buffalo.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae
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See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_latifrons
Tags: Bison latifrons fossil fossils buffalo Pleistocene mammal mammals
Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758) - American plains buffalo in South Dakota, USA (August 2010).
Mammals are the dominant group of terrestrial vertebrates on Earth today. The group is defined based on a combination of features: endothermic (= warm-blooded), air-breathing, body hair, mother's milk, four-chambered heart, large brain-to-body mass ratio, two teeth generations, differentiated dentition, and a single lower jawbone. Almost all modern mammals have live birth - exceptions are the duck-billed platypus and the echidna, both of which lay eggs.
Mammals first appear in the Triassic fossil record - they evolved from the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Mammals were mostly small and a minor component of terrestrial ecosystems during the Mesozoic. After the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction at 65 million years ago, the mammals underwent a significant adaptive radiation - most modern mammal groups first appeared during this radiation in the early Cenozoic (Paleocene and Eocene).
Three groups of mammals exist in the Holocene - placentals, marsupials, and monotremes. Other groups, now extinct, were present during the Mesozoic.
The American buffalo was formerly hyperabundant in western America. It was driven nearly to extinction by tribal American Indians and colonial Americans. The sizable population resulted from the species expanding into empty niche space after the end-Pleistocene mass extinction of large North American megafauna (e.g., mammoths, mastodons, etc.). The mass extinction was due to a combination of climate warming (= end of the Wisconsinan Ice Age) and overhunting by American Paleoindians.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae
Locality: Wind Cave National Park, southern Black Hills, southwestern South Dakota, USA
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See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison
Tags: bison American plains buffalo Wind Cave National Park Black Hills South Dakota
Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758) - American plains buffalo in North Dakota, USA (August 2008).
Mammals are the dominant group of terrestrial vertebrates on Earth today. The group is defined based on a combination of features: endothermic (= warm-blooded), air-breathing, body hair, mother's milk, four-chambered heart, large brain-to-body mass ratio, two teeth generations, differentiated dentition, and a single lower jawbone. Almost all modern mammals have live birth - exceptions are the duck-billed platypus and the echidna, both of which lay eggs.
Mammals first appear in the Triassic fossil record - they evolved from the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Mammals were mostly small and a minor component of terrestrial ecosystems during the Mesozoic. After the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction at 65 million years ago, the mammals underwent a significant adaptive radiation - most modern mammal groups first appeared during this radiation in the early Cenozoic (Paleocene and Eocene).
Three groups of mammals exist in the Holocene - placentals, marsupials, and monotremes. Other groups, now extinct, were present during the Mesozoic.
The American buffalo was formerly hyperabundant in western America. It was driven nearly to extinction by tribal American Indians and colonial Americans. The sizable population resulted from the species expanding into empty niche space after the end-Pleistocene mass extinction of large North American megafauna (e.g., mammoths, mastodons, etc.). The mass extinction was due to a combination of climate warming (= end of the Wisconsinan Ice Age) and overhunting by American Paleoindians.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae
Locality: roadside, "North Unit" of Roosevelt National Park, Little Missouri Badlands, western North Dakota, USA
-------------------
See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison
Tags: Bison American plains buffalo Little Missouri Badlands North Dakota Unit Roosevelt National Park
Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758) - American buffalo in Wyoming, USA (June 2024).
Mammals are the dominant group of terrestrial vertebrates on Earth today. The group is defined based on a combination of features: endothermic (= warm-blooded), air-breathing, body hair, mother's milk, four-chambered heart, large brain-to-body mass ratio, two teeth generations, differentiated dentition, and a single lower jawbone. Almost all modern mammals have live birth - exceptions are the duck-billed platypus and the echidna, both of which lay eggs.
Mammals first appear in the Triassic fossil record - they evolved from the therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Mammals were mostly small and a minor component of terrestrial ecosystems during the Mesozoic. After the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction at 65 million years ago, the mammals underwent a significant adaptive radiation - most modern mammal groups first appeared during this radiation in the early Cenozoic (Paleocene and Eocene).
Three groups of mammals exist in the Holocene - placentals, marsupials, and monotremes. Other groups, now extinct, were present during the Mesozoic.
The American buffalo was formerly hyperabundant in western America. It was driven nearly to extinction by tribal American Indians and colonial Americans. The large population resulted from the species expanding into a sizable and empty niche space after the end-Pleistocene mass extinction of large North American megafauna (e.g., mammoths, mastodons, etc.). The mass extinction occurred from a combination of climate warming (= end of the Wisconsinan Ice Age) and overhunting by American Paleoindians.
Wild buffalo are common in Yellowstone, Wyoming, but they represent the plains buffalo subspecies, which was introduced to Yellowstone, that has hybridized with the native woodlands subspecies (some dispute that account). Yellowstone buffalo are regularly "culled" / murdered by park personnel every spring, when the park is closed to the public, and by some Montana Indian tribes when buffalo leave the park during migrations.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae
Locality: Sapphire Group / Biscuit Basin, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone, northwestern Wyoming, USA
-------------------
See info. at:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_bison
and
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison
Tags: mammal mammals Bison American buffalo Yellowstone Wyoming June 2024
Bison antiquus Leidy, 1853 - fossil buffalo skeleton (real) from the Pleistocene of New Mexico, USA (public display, CM 10192, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA).
The ancient bison (a.k.a. Ice Age bison) had a slightly larger body & horns compared with the modern American buffalo (Bison bison). Bison antiquus is the inferred ancestral species to modern Bison bison.
Classification: Animalia, Chordata, Vertebrata, Mammalia, Artiodactyla, Bovidae
Stratigraphy: near-uppermost Pleistocene
Locality: near Folsom, northeastern New Mexico, USA
Tags: Bison antiquus Pleistocene buffalo fossil New Mexico