Bison, Hamilton Smith, 1827

Marciszak, A, Stefaniak, K & Gornig, W, 2017, Large mammals (carnivores, artiodactyls) from Solna Jama Cave (Bystrzyckie Mts, Southwestern Poland) in the context of faunal changes in the postglacial period of Central Europe, Palaeontologia Electronica (Bellingham, Wash.) 11 (4), pp. 1-37 : 21

Bison / Bos sp.

Specimen. Damaged, left M2 (JSJ.Bx/1).

Remarks. The examined tooth belonged to an adult, in its prime, with its crown worn to the extent suggesting an age between 5 and 7 years. The morphology of molars of both large bovines, the genera Bos and Bison , is very similar. According to Prat (1987), the main difference between them is the presence of a small enamel islet, situated in the central crown part, in the genus Bison (also in Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 ). Contrary to that, Sala (1986) found this structure in the genus Bos , but not in the genus Bison . Moreover, morphometrically the M2 from Solna Jama fits almost exactly within the range of Bos taurus from medieval Polish sites ( Chrzanowska, 1975, 1985) and is narrower than M2 of Bison bonasus ( Linnaeus, 1758) or Bos primigenius Bojanus, 1827 ( Brudnicki et al., 2011). For these reasons the examined specimen was classified only as an undetermined large bovid.