The earliest members of the bison lineage, known from the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of the Indian Subcontinent (Bison sivalensis) and China (Bison palaeosinensis), approximately 3.4-2.6 million years ago (Ma) are placed in the subgenus Bison (Eobison).
Bison, either of two species of oxlike grazing mammals that constitute the genus Bison. Hunting drastically reduced the populations of the American bison (B. bison), or buffalo, and the European bison (B. bonasus), or wisent, and now these animals occupy only small fractions of their former ranges.
What makes Yellowstone's bison so special is that they're the pure descendants (free of cattle genes) of early bison that roamed our country's grasslands. As of July 2015, Yellowstone's bison population was estimated at 4,900—making it the largest bison population on public lands.
The American bison’s scientific name is Bison bison, and there are two recognized subspecies: the plains bison and the wood bison. Each subspecies has adapted to different environments and climates.
Beginning in 1905, the American Bison Society and the US government launched a campaign to save the species from extinction and restore bison numbers, an effort that succeeded but ended in 1935.
American bison are North America's largest terrestrial animals. Millions once roamed the grasslands and prairies of the Great Plains, but today the bison population survives primarily in conservation herds.
A familiar icon of the American West, the Plains bison (Bison bison bison), also commonly called buffalo, is one of two subspecies of the American bison, with the other being the wood bison (Bison bison athabascae).
The Bison belongs to the genus Bison of the Bovidae family in the Artiodactyla order. It can weigh between 900 and 2,200 pounds, stand between 6 and 6.5 feet tall at the shoulder, and be up to 10 feet long.