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. 2024 Aug 14;11(8):240317.
doi: 10.1098/rsos.240317. eCollection 2024 Aug.

Was the steppe bison a grazing beast in Pleistocene landscapes?

Emilia Hofman-Kamińska  1 , Gildas Merceron  2 , Hervé Bocherens  3   4 , Gennady G Boeskorov  5   6 , Oleksandra O Krotova  7 , Albert V Protopopov  6 , Andrei V Shpansky  8 , Rafał Kowalczyk  1
Affiliations

Was the steppe bison a grazing beast in Pleistocene landscapes?

Emilia Hofman-Kamińska et al. R Soc Open Sci. .

Abstract

The history and palaeoecology of the steppe bison (Bison priscus) remain incompletely understood despite its widespread distribution. Using dental microwear textural analysis (DMTA) and vegetation modelling, 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-was typical of a highly grazing bovid species and differed from all B. priscus populations. The results of the study temper the common perception that steppe bison were grazers in steppe habitats. The dietary plasticity of the steppe bison was lower when compared with modern European bison and may have played an important role in its extinction, even in the stable tundra biome of eastern Siberia, where it has survived the longest in all of Eurasia.

Keywords: Bb1 bison; Bison priscus; dental microwear textures; diet; habitat use; vegetation modelling.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare we have no competing interests.

Figures

Location of specimens of the steppe bison (B. priscus)—black circles and Bb1 bison—white circle.
Figure 1.
Location of specimens of the steppe bison (B. priscus)—black circles and Bb1 bison—white circle. For a detailed description of the study sites, see electronic supplementary material, S2. Circles indicate mean leaf area index (LAI) of reconstructed vegetation types for each study site. The size of the circle is proportional to the number of samples in the site. The age and vegetation reconstruction of individual samples are shown in electronic supplementary material, S1 and S4.1.
Differences in dental microwear texture parameters.
Figure 2.
Differences in dental microwear texture parameters (complexity—Asfc; anisotropy—epLsar; and heterogeneity of complexity—HAsfc81 ) between the populations of the steppe bison B. priscus and Bb1 bison (Amvrosiivka) (statistically significant differences: *0.05 > p > 0.01; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001). Boxes indicate the mean and the whiskers indicate the standard deviation.
Dental microwear texture parameters of the steppe bison B. priscus over time in Eurasia and Alaska.
Figure 3.
Dental microwear texture parameters of the steppe bison B. priscus over time in Eurasia and Alaska.
Predicted association between steppe bison tooth anisotropy (epLsar) and tree LAI in study sites.
Figure 4.
Predicted association between steppe bison tooth anisotropy (epLsar) and tree LAI in study sites. Shaded areas indicate 95% confidence intervals.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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