Bos bison Linnaeus 1758

• Main Authors: Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: Lynx Edicions 2011
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Taxonomy; Animalia; Chordata; Mammalia; Artiodactyla; Bovidae; Bos; Bos bison; Wood Bison; Alaska; Plains Bison
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6636687; http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03F50713994DFFF8065FF30EFC22F940

5. American Bison Bos bison French: Bison d’Amérique / German: Bison / Spanish: Bisonte americano Other common names: Buffalo; Plains Bison (bison), Wood Bison (athabascae) Taxonomy . Bos bison Linnaeus, 1758, Mexico (= C Kansas, Quivira). Restricted by Hershkovitz in 1957 to C Kansas, “Quivira.” Sometimes included in the genus Bison. Most recognize two subspecies of American Bison based on physical differences in body mass, horn size, diameter of horn cores, hump configuration, and foreleg chaps. Because of mixing of the “Plains Bison” (bison) with the “Wood Bison” (athabascae) in northern Canada in the 1920s, populations of Wood Bison are no longer genetically pure, but they do retain many of their taxonomic characteristics and other differences from Plains Bison and can be distinguished completely by six horn and five cranial measurements. Two subspecies recognized. Subspecies and Distribution. B.b.bisonLinnaeus,1758—scatteredinfree-rangingconservationherdsinW&CCanada(BritishColumbia&Saskatchewan),WUSA(Alaska,Montana,Utah&Wyoming),andextremeNMexico(Chihuahua). B. b. athabascae Rhoads, 1898 — scattered in free-ranging conservation herds in W & C Canada. Descriptive notes . Head-body 304-380 cm (males) and 210-350 (females), tail 43-60 cm, shoulder height 167-195 cm (males) and 150-180 cm (females); weight 460-998 kg (males) and 360-544 kg (females). American Bison are the largest terrestrial herbivores in North America, massively built, tall, and rather narrow in head-on profile. Although the two subspecies, Plains Bison and Wood Bison, share common characteristics, individuals in extant populations are disparate in some diagnostic ways. Compared to Plains Bison, Wood Bison weigh more; they have a longer body, legs, and horns; wider and longer pelvis; and greater basal skull length but smaller skull width on the masseteric processes. The hump of the Wood Bison is more abrupt and taller anteriorly, whereas the Plains Bison has a deeper neck from which the hump rises gradually and does not ...