<i>Bison antiquus</i> from Kenora, Ontario, and Notes on the Evolution of North American Holocene <i>Bison</i>

Abstract

An associated skeleton of an adult male Bison <i>antiquus occidentalis</i> from Kenora, Ontario, is radiocarbon dated at 4270±65 yrs BP, making it the youngest unequivocal record for the species. It also extends the range 280 km north and 65 km east of the previously documented limits for the genus in the western Great Lakes area. The Kenora bison died in a shallow pond in an oak-pine woodland; it was experiencing nutritional stress at the time of its death. Both halves of the mandible had been fractured by trauma earlier in life. A review of morphological change in bison during the Holocene shows that later bison, <i>Bison bison</i>, were absolutely smaller, had absolutely shorter limbs, and had more robust upper limbs and more gracile lower limbs, relative to length, than did the earlier bison,&nbsp;<i>Bison antiquus</i>. Compared with that of <i>Bison antiquus</i>, the thoracic limb of <i>Bison bison</i> became elongated relative to the pelvic limb, and limb length increased relative to skull size. Relative to the norm in <i>Bison antiquus</i>, these traits diverged further in the wood bison. <i>Bison bison athabascae</i>, than in the plains bison, <i>Bison bison bison</i>. The patterns of pelage development and social behavior in <i>Bison bison bison</i>, however, are more distant from parallel patterns postulated for <i>Bison antiquus antiquus</i> than are pat¬ terns of pelage development and social behavior in <i>Bison bison athabascae</i>.&nbsp;