Bison occidentalis

Taxobox
name = Bison occidentalis


image_caption =
status = Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Mammalia
ordo = Artiodactyla
familia = Bovidae
subfamilia = Bovinae
genus = "Bison"
species = "B. occidentalis"
binomial = "Bison occidentalis"
binomial_authority =

"Bison occidentalis" is an extinct species of bison that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. It was probably born of the "Bison priscus". "B. occidentalis" was smaller and smaller horned than the steppe bison. Unlike any bison before it, its horns pointed upward, parallel to the plane of its face from nose to forehead, instead of pointing forward through that plane. Around 5,000 years ago, "B. occidentalis" was replaced by today's smaller "Bison bison bison". It has been theorized that "B. occidentalis" declined in numbers because of competition with other grass eaters of the megafauna epoch.

References

* Lott, Dale F. 2002. "American Bison." "University of California Press."