NO. 1172 



THE FOSSIL BISON OF NORTH AMERICA— LUCAS. 759 



BISON ANTIQUUS Leidy. 

 (Plates LXVII-LXX.) 



mson antiquus Lkiuy, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1852 p 117; Meru. Ext. 



Sp<'C Amor. Ox.. 1852, p. 11, pi. n, fig. 1 (SmitbHon.au Contributious, III). 

 Bison laiifrons Leily, Extinct Mam. of N. A., 186i., p. 371 0" part); Extinct 



Vert Fauna, 1873, p. 253, pi. xxviii, figs. 4-7 (Report U. S. Geol. burv., I). 

 Bison antiquus Allkn, An,. Bisons, Living and Extinct, 1876, p. 21 (m part). 

 Bison californicus RnOAUS, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., ri^H'^v IfJ' P- SOJ- 

 Bos prisons Lydekkek, Wild Oxen, Sheep and (ioatK of All Lands, Loudon, 1898, 



p. 61. 



Type.— In the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; from Big 

 Bone Lick, Kentucky. Horn cores comparatively short, stout, and 

 abruptly tapering; circumference at base much exceeding length along 

 upper curve; subcircular or slightly triangular in section, transverse 

 diameter very little greater than vertical; slightly recurved at tips, 

 which barely 'rise above the plane of the forehead.' Axis of horn cores 

 nearly at right angles to longitudinal axis of skull. This last character 

 distinguishes Bison antiquus from all other American species. 



A large specimen from Ilford, Sussex (Plate LXXII), labeled B. 

 honasus, has the horn cores at right angles to the axis of the skull, but 

 they are much larger and very much more up-curved than in />'. antiquus. 

 The horn cores of B. antiquus have a rather sharp ridge along the 

 Inferior face toward the tip, and they are deeply grooved on the pos- 

 terior face. . . 



The horn cores of Bison antiquus are so different in size, proportions, 

 and curvatures from those of />'. crassicornis and B. latifrons that it is 

 diihcult to see why the species should have been confused. Putting 

 aside all differences in appearance due to mere size, the horns of li. 

 antiquus, it may be well to repeat, differ from all other American spe- 

 cies in standing at right angles to the skull. Imperfect specimens of 

 B. antiquus may be distinguished from similar specimens of B.latijr<ms, 

 even should they be of api)roximately the same size, by the very differ- 

 ent shape of the transverse section of the horn cores, this being broadly 

 elliptical in latifrons and roundly subtiiangular in antiqum. 



Mr Khoads, who has named the Oalifornian bison li. caliprmcus, 

 correctly saysHhat 1 concurred in his opinion that the California bison 

 was distinct from B. antiquus, but at the time I had not seen the type 

 ofB. antiquus and labored under the impression that it was similar to 

 the specimens from Alaska and Kansas which are herein described as 

 B occidentalis. From these the California specimen certainly is dis- 

 tinct, although it is the one specimen that has been (correctly referred 

 to B. antiquus. I regret that I should have thus inadvertently added 



' The differeuce^^eu B. antiquus aud B. occidentalis in this respect is well 

 shown in the plate (XVII) accompanying Mr. Stewart's paperin the Kansas Uni- 

 versity Quarterly for July, 1897, the upper figure being antiquus, the lower occtdentahs, 

 although described as antiquus. 



■i Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1897, p. 501. 



