Supplementary material from "Was the steppe bison a grazing beast in Pleistocene landscapes?" ...

• Main Authors: Hofman-Kamińska, Emilia, Merceron, Gildas, Bocherens, Hervé, Boeskorov, Gennady G., Krotova, Oleksandra O, Protopopov, Albert, Shpansky, Andrei V, Kowalczyk, Rafal
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Royal Society 2024
• Subjects: Other environmental sciences not elsewhere classified; Tundra; Alaska; Siberia
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7389783.v1; https://rs.figshare.com/collections/Supplementary_material_from_Was_the_steppe_bison_a_grazing_beast_in_Pleistocene_landscapes_/7389783/1

The history and paleoecology of the steppe bison ( Bison priscus ) remain incompletely understood despite its widespread distribution. Using dental microwear textural analysis (DMTA) and vegetation modeling, we reconstructed the diet and assessed the habitat of steppe bison inhabiting Eurasia and Alaska since the Middle Pleistocene. During the Late Pleistocene, steppe bison occupied a variety of biome types: from the mosaic of temperate summergreen forest and steppe/temperate grassland (Serbia) to the tundra biomes (Siberia and Alaska). Despite the differences in the identified biome types, the diet of steppe bison did not differ significantly among populations in Eurasia. DMTA classified it as a mixed forager in all populations studied. The DMTA of Bb1 bison - a recently identified genetically extinct sister-clade of Bison bonasus - were typical of a highly grazing bovid species and differed from all Bison priscus populations. The results of the study tamper the common perception that steppe bison were ...