Bison schoetensacki, also known commonly as the Pleistocene woodland bison or the Pleistocene wood bison, was a species of bison that lived until Middle or Upper Pleistocene among western Europe to southern Siberia.
Bison schoetensacki
Temporal range: Early Pleistocene–Middle Pleistocene | |||||
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Fossil of Bison schoetensacki at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart | |||||
Scientific classification | |||||
Kingdom: | Animalia | ||||
Phylum: | Chordata | ||||
Class: | Mammalia | ||||
Order: | Artiodactyla | ||||
Family: | Bovidae | ||||
Subfamily: | Bovinae | ||||
Genus: | Bison | ||||
Species: | †B. schoetensacki | ||||
Conservation Status | |||||
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Description[]
B. schoetensacki was generally similar to extant European bison in shape although there could have been morphological variations among European bisons during late Early Pleistocene and Early Holocene.
In comparison to B. priscus, B. schoetensacki was either smaller or similar in size but with slenderer leg bones and metapodials, and had shorter and differently shaped horns.
Diet[]
Despite its common name, B. schoetensacki was probably not a mix-feeder, like the extant wood bison. Instead, dental mesowear of the species shows similar pattern to that of extant European bison, a grazer.
Paleobiology[]
Numbers of fossils have been obtained from Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, and mass excavations from the paleolithic site, dating back to around 700,000 years ago, in Isernia in Italy indicate B. schoetensacki was the most heavily targeted animal by human hunters, meanwhile European bison likely didn't inhabit Italian and Iberian Peninsulas.
Ranges of B. schoetensacki and steppe bison presumably overlapped for some extents.