THE AMEEICA]^ BISOITS 



fLophiodon hathygnatlms Owen, Cat. Fos. Mam. etc. Mus. Eoy. Col. Surg., 197, 1845. 



fHarlanus amerlcanus OvYEN, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1846, 96 ; Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., I, 18, 



pL vi, 1847 ; Amer- Journ. Sci. & Arts, 2d Ser., Ill, 125, 1847. 

 Great Indian Buffalo, Peale, Phllos. Mag., 1803, 325 ; Hist, Disq. on tlie Mammoth, 84, 1803. 

 AurocTis, CuviER, Ann. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat., XII, 382, pL xxxiv, fig. 2, 1808 ; Ossem. Fos., lY, 50, 



. Ill 



F ^ 



%. 2. 1812; 2d. Ed., 1824; 3d Ed., 143, pL xii, fig 2, 1825; 4th Ed., YI, 287, pi. xxii, fig. 2, 1835 



(the American specimen only). 

 Great Fosdl Ox, sp. latifrons, Godmam, Am. Nat. Hist., Ill, 243, jol, 1828. 

 Fossil Ox, Carpenter, Amer. Journ. ScL & Arts, 2d Ser., I, 245, figs, 1, 2, 1846; 3d Ser., X, p. 386, 



1875. 

 ? Ox, CouPER, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1842, 217. 

 Bmuffosdle a comes disposees presque horizontalement, etc., Faujas, Ann. du Mus., II, 190, 1803 ; Essais 



de Geologic, I. 329, pi. xvii (only the reference to the American specimen). 



The present species of Bison seems to be well distinguished from all others 

 of the genus^ either living or extinct^ by its gigantic size^ far exceeding 

 even the Bison prisciis of the Old World. Our knowledge of it rests at pres- 

 ent on portions of three skulls. Other remains have been attributed to it^ 

 but most of thein apparently improperly. For a long time the species was 



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known only from the original specimen first made known by Peale^ and sub- 

 sequently redescribed by Harlan and Leidy, under the names respectively of 

 Bos Mifrons and Bison latifrons. The second specimen was found in Texas 

 and described by Dr. Carpenter in 1846, simply as the skull of an extinct 



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The third 



specimen, consisting of a pair of horn-cores, found together but disconnected, 



recently dug up in Adams County, Ohio, and was first noticed in 



was 



the American Journal of Science (November, 1875), as the remains of a 

 o^igantic extinct ox. Dr. Leidy has described and figured at different times 





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several molar teeth that seem to have belonged to the same species, but 

 other remains latterly doubtfully attributed to the same form belong to a 



smaller species. 



Dr. Leidy's very excellent description of the first specimen is as follows: 

 « The Bison latifrons is established upon the fragment of cranium before re- 

 ferred to, presented by Dr. Samuel Brown to the American Philosophical 

 Society. The specimen consists of the hinder portion of the cranium wath 

 a frao-ment fourteen inches in length of the left horn-core, and indicates a 

 species as large as the existing arnee, or buffalo {Bvhalus hvffelus Gray), of 

 India and Java. The sutures of the remaining bones of the specimen are 

 anchylosed; but the positions of the frontal and fronto-parietal sutures 

 are yet distinguishable as slightly elevated zigzag lines. The form of 



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