关键词: 草原野牛; 头骨; 吉林乾安; 晚更新世

Abstract: The discovery of fossil bison in China has an almost one hundred year long history, during which bison fossils were reported occasionally, but no paper specially on the discoveries was published. Any fossil materials reported were poor and lacked complete skeletal materials. The present paper describes two almost complete crania and three semi-mandibles. These fossils were ?discovered ?in? the ?Dabusu? area ?in ?Qian’an? County,? Jilin? Province.? The? geological ?age ?of? the? fossil-bearing stratum is 20ka BP. Based on morphological characters and dimensions these bison fossils are referred to as the steppe bison, Bison priscus (Bojanus, 1827). In the last half-century, fossil bison from northeast China were included in the species Bison exiguus Matsumoto, 1915, which seems odd today because of historic disagreements in type locality, geological age and morphological characters. We propose that all Late Pleistocene bison fossils from the northeast China plain should be referred to the species Bison priscus that once roamed throughout the Holarctic region during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. Bison was among the most important element of the Mammuthus-Coelodonta fauna in northeast China.

Key words: Bison priscus;? Skull;? Jilin;? Late?Pleistocene?