THE EXTINCT BISONS OF NORTH AMERICA; WITH DE- 

 SCRIPTION OF ONE NEW SPECIES, BISON REGIUS. 



By Oliver P. Hat, 



Research Associate of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



Since Frederic A. Lucas ^ wrote, iii 1899, his paper on The Fossil 

 Bisons of North America, a considerable number of new specimens 

 have found their way into the various collections; and some of these 

 furnish more complete portions of the skull than were known at that 

 time. It seems therefore proper that these new acquisitions should 

 be described and illustrated; and this the writer proposes to do, 

 having, through the courtesy of the officers of the United States 

 National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the 

 Field Museum of Natural History, Earlham College, Indiana, and 

 the University of Kansas, had free access to the materials in their 

 possession. 



Inasmuch as many European writers have been disposed to refer 

 the fossil bisons of North America, except perhaps B. latifrons, to the 

 European species. Bison priscus, it seems to be necessary to consider 

 that name and the forms which have been arranged under it. 



Anyone who examines the various figures of skulls to which this 

 name has been applied must be struck by the great differences 

 which are presented by them in the length of the horn-cores, their 

 direction, and the amount of their curvature. As examples of these 

 may be taken two skulls figured by H. v. Meyer.^ Figure 1, plate 8, 

 represents the former, found near Pavia, Italy. Figure 2 of same 

 plate shows the latter, supposed to have been brought from Hungary. 

 Another example is represented by figures 1, 2 of plate 15, a specimen 

 found in Siberia, in the case of which the horn-sheaths are yet 

 present. Figure 3 of plate 8 is reproduced from the skull described 

 by Pallas,^ and found on one of the tributaries of the Yenesei River, 

 in Siberia. As will be observed the horn-sheaths had been preserved. 

 Tscherski* described this skull, comparing it with a number of others. 



1 Proe. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 21, pp. 755-771, pis. 65-84. 



2 Nova Acta, etc., vol. 17, 1835, pis. 10, 11. 



3 Nova Comment. Acad. Petropol., vol. 13, 1769, p. 462, pi. 11, fig. 1. 

 * M^m. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersb., ser. 7, vol. 40, 1893, p. 76. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 46— No. 2021 . 

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