title: Fossil and genomic evidence constrains the timing of bison arrival in North America.
abstract: The arrival of bison in North America marks one of the most successful large-mammal dispersals from Asia within the last million years, yet the timing and nature of this event remain poorly determined. Here, we used a combined paleontological and paleogenomic approach to provide a robust timeline for the entry and subsequent evolution of bison within North America. We characterized two fossil-rich localities in Canada's Yukon and identified the oldest well-constrained bison fossil in North America, a 130,000-y-old steppe bison,Bisoncf.priscusWe extracted and sequenced mitochondrial genomes from both this bison and from the remains of a recently discovered, ∼120,000-y-old giant long-horned bison,Bison latifrons, from Snowmass, Colorado. We analyzed these and 44 other bison mitogenomes with ages that span the Late Pleistocene, and identified two waves of bison dispersal into North America from Asia, the earliest of which occurred ∼195-135 thousand y ago and preceded the morphological diversification of North American bison, and the second of which occurred during the Late Pleistocene, ∼45-21 thousand y ago. This chronological arc establishes that bison first entered North America during the sea level lowstand accompanying marine isotope stage 6, rejecting earlier records of bison in North America. After their invasion, bison rapidly colonized North America during the last interglaciation, spreading from Alaska through continental North America; they have been continuously resident since then.
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E3; duane.froese@ualberta.ca beth.shapiro@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Duane
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1032-5944
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Froese
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.|German Cancer Consortium, German Cancer Research Center, Institute for Translational Skin Cancer Research, D-45141 Essen, Germany.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stiller
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
authors.forename: Peter D
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6449-0219
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Heintzman
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E3.
authors.forename: Alberto V
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7838-4214
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Reyes
authors.affiliation: Yukon Palaeontology Program, Department of Tourism & Culture, Government of Yukon, Whitehorse, YT, Canada Y1A 2C6.
authors.forename: Grant D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Zazula
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
authors.forename: André E R
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7768-2199
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: Yukon Palaeontology Program, Department of Tourism & Culture, Government of Yukon, Whitehorse, YT, Canada Y1A 2C6.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada T6G 2E3.|Royal Alberta Museum, Edmonton, AB, Canada T5N 0M6.
authors.forename: Britta J L
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Jensen
authors.affiliation: School of Physical Sciences, Environment Institute, and Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
authors.forename: Lee J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.affiliation: Division of Vertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY 10024.
authors.forename: Ross D E
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0688-0232
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: MacPhee
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064; duane.froese@ualberta.ca beth.shapiro@gmail.com.|University of California, Santa Cruz Genomics Institute, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064.
authors.forename: Beth
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-2733-7776
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shapiro
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016164:Bison / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D005580:Fossils / Q000266:history; D054629:Genome, Mitochondrial; D023281:Genomics; D049690:History, Ancient; D009656:North America; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Beringia; Bison latifrons; Bison priscus; Rancholabrean; paleogenomics; steppe bison