Holocene Bison Evolution

Since the Last Glacial Period, Bison have responded to environmental changes with distribution shifts and body size changes. While many other large mammals went extinct at the Pleistocene - Holocene transition (ca. 12,000 years ago), Bison survived to dominate open ecosystems in North America.

Built with R and QGIS Image: PhyloPic
Body size data: Hill et al. 2008
Distribution data: Neotoma