Steppe bison
| Steppe bison Temporal range: Middle Pleistocene to Holocene | |
|---|---|
| "Blue Babe", a mummified specimen from Alaska | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Genus: | Bison |
| Species: | †B. priscus |
| Binomial name | |
| †Bison priscus Bojanus, 1825 | |
The steppe bison (Bison priscus, also less commonly known as the steppe wisent and the primeval bison) is an extinct species of bison which lived from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene. During the Late Pleistocene, it was widely distributed across the mammoth steppe, ranging from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America. It is ancestral to all North American bison, including ultimately modern American bison. Three chronological subspecies, Bison priscus priscus, Bison priscus mediator, and Bison priscus gigas, have been suggested.