SynapsidaBovidae

Bison bison

Plains bison

Bison bison skeletal reconstruction, left lateral view, length ~3.2 m.
Scale bar = 50 centimeters
Taxon
Bison bison (Linnaeus, 1758)
Reconstructed length
~3.2 m (10 feet)
View
Left lateral
Drawing
© Scott Hartman
Drawn
2025
Clade
  1. Synapsida
  2. Therapsida
  3. Mammalia
  4. Placentalia
  5. Laurasiatheria
  6. Artiodactyla
  7. Bovidae

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The living North American plains bison, and the continent’s largest land mammal. The plains bison is a heavy-shouldered grazer that once ranged in vast herds across the Great Plains, before over-hunting nearly led to its extermination in the nineteenth century. All living plains bison include domesticated cows in their ancestry (due to the few survivors getting cross-bred), but they are definitely not domesticated - please give them a wide berth if you are lucky enough to see one in the wild!