Leptobos
| Leptobos Temporal range:
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| Skeleton of Leptobos etruscus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Bovidae |
| Subfamily: | Bovinae |
| Genus: | †Leptobos Rütimeyer, 1878 |
| Species | |
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See text | |
Leptobos is an extinct genus of large bovines, known from the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene of Eurasia, extending from the Iberian Peninsula and Britain to the Indian subcontent and northern China.[1][2][3] It is widely posited to be the ancestor of bison.
Description
[edit]
Species of Leptobos weighed on average 320 kilograms (710 lb),[4] and have been described as being medium-sized bovines that had relatively slender limbs.[1][2] The skulls of Leptobos species are relatively long and narrow and have proportionally elongate molar teeth (though the degree of hypsodonty varies between species) Females lack horn cores. In males, the horn cores vary from being straight to somewhat curved, and generally diverge at an angle between 65° and 80° (with some reaching up to 105°) from each other. In a number of species, the horn cores are curved outward, upwards and forwards.[2]
Distribution and ecology
[edit]The genus is known from fossils found across the mid-latitudes of Eurasia, from Britain, the Nertherlands, and the Iberian Peninsula in the west, eastwards towards the northern Indian subcontinent and northern China.[3][5] Species likely inhabited both open grasslands, forests and mixed forest-grassland environments.[3] The dietary preference across the genus includes species that were browsers,[6] grazers[7] and mixed feeders (both browsing and grazing).[8] Damage to a lower jaw of Leptobos brevicornis from the Early Pleistocene of Longdan, Northern China indicates that this individual was predated upon by a big cat, likely Sivapanthera linxiaensis or Panthera palaeosinensis.[9] Other likely potential predators include sabertooth cats.[10]
Taxonomy and evolution
[edit]The genus was first named in 1878 by Swiss paleontologist Ludwig Ruetimeyer, with the type species being Leptobos falconeri, named in the same publication[11] based on remains found in the Siwalik hills of the Indian Subcontinent.[10] The taxonomy of Leptobos is contentious.[10] Authors have often accepted L. stenometopon–L. merlai–L. furtivus and L. etruscus–L. vallisarni as two distinct lineages within Leptobos.[11] Duvernois in a 1992 publication alternatively suggested that Leptobos should be divided into two subgenera based on the shape of their horn cores: Leptobos (Leptobos) containing the species L. elatus and L. furtivus and Smertiobos, containing L. etruscus and potentially L. bravardi, though this scheme is controversial has not been accepted by all authors.[10][12][3]
Species
[edit]- Leptobos brevicornis Hu and Qi, 1978 (China)
- Leptobos crassus Jia and Wang, 1978 (China)
- Leptobos falconeri (type) Ruetimeyer, 1878 (Indian subcontinent)
- Leptobos stenometopon Sismonda, 1846 (France and Italy)
- Leptobos merlai DeGiuli, 1987 (France and Italy)
- Leptobos furtivus (Duvernois and Guerin, 1989 (France also possibly Italy)
- Leptobos etruscus Falconer, 1859 (Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Romania, and Georgia[10])
- Leptobos vallisarni Merla, 1949 (Italy[10] and China)
Leptobos is considered to be closely related to the insular genus Epileptobos from the Pleistocene of Java,[3] which may be a descendant of Leptobos.[3] "Leptobos" syrticus from Libya likely belongs in a different genus.[3]
Evolution
[edit]The first appearance of Leptobos in Europe around 3.6-3.5 million years ago is considered to define the beginning of the Villafranchian European faunal stage.[13] Leptobos is widely considered to be ancestral to Bison, which first appeared in Asia at the beginning of the Pleistocene around 2.6 million years ago.[1][14] The earliest appearance of Leptobos in China dates to around 2.55-2.14 million years ago.[3] Leptobos became extinct in Europe during the latter part of the Early Pleistocene, around 1.7-1.5 million years ago, being replaced by their descendants of the genus Bison following a period of coexistence.[1][14] In China, the youngest records date to around 0.8 million years ago at the Yunxian Man Site in Hubei, at the very end of the Early Pleistocene.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Sorbelli, Leonardo; Alba, David M.; Cherin, Marco; Moullé, Pierre-Élie; Brugal, Jean-Philip; Madurell-Malapeira, Joan (June 2021). "A review on Bison schoetensacki and its closest relatives through the early-Middle Pleistocene transition: Insights from the Vallparadís Section (NE Iberian Peninsula) and other European localities". Quaternary Science Reviews. 261 106933. Bibcode:2021QSRv..26106933S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.106933. S2CID 235527116.
- ^ a b c Tong, Hao-Wen; Chen, Xi; Zhang, Bei (July 2017). "New fossils of Bison palaeosinensis (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the steppe mammoth site of Early Pleistocene in Nihewan Basin, China". Quaternary International. 445: 250–268. Bibcode:2017QuInt.445..250T. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2016.07.033.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Mead, Jim I.; Jin, Changzhu; Wei, Guangbiao; Sun, Chengkai; Wang, Yuan; Swift, Sandra L.; Zheng, Longting (December 2014). "New data on Leptobos crassus (Artiodactyla, Bovidae) from Renzidong Cave, Early Pleistocene (Nihewanian) of Anhui, China, and an overview of the genus". Quaternary International. 354: 139–146. Bibcode:2014QuInt.354..139M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2014.02.019.
- ^ Brugal, Jean‑Philip; Croitor, Roman (2007-06-01). "Evolution, ecology and biochronology of herbivore associations in Europe during the last 3 million years". Quaternaire. 18 (2): 129152. doi:10.4000/quaternaire.1014. ISSN 1142-2904.
- ^ D. Mol & J. Mulder. (2019). Een raadselachtige hoornpit: Een rund (Bovidae; Bovinae: Leptobos sp.) uit het Laat-Plioceen of Vroeg-Pleistoceen van de bodem van de Noordzee tussen Engeland en Nederland [A mysterious horn core: A bovine (Bovidae; Bovinae: Leptobos sp.) from the Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene from the bottom of the North Sea between England and the Netherlands]. Cranium, 36(2), 45–51.
- ^ Haiduc, Bogdan S.; Răţoi, Bogdan G.; Semprebon, Gina M. (2018-02-22). "Dietary reconstruction of Plio-Pleistocene proboscideans from the Carpathian Basin of Romania using enamel microwear". Quaternary International. 467: 222–229. Bibcode:2018QuInt.467..222H. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2018.01.039. ISSN 1040-6182.
- ^ Zhao, LingXia; Zhang, LiZhao; Zhang, FuSong; Wu, XinZhi (2011-09-12). "Enamel carbon isotope evidence of diet and habitat of Gigantopithecus blacki and associated mammalian megafauna in the Early Pleistocene of South China". Chinese Science Bulletin. 56 (33): 3590–3595. Bibcode:2011ChSBu..56.3590Z. doi:10.1007/s11434-011-4732-4. ISSN 1001-6538. S2CID 129987242.
- ^ Strani, Flavia; DeMiguel, Daniel; Sardella, Raffaele; Bellucci, Luca (July 2018). "Resource and niche differentiation mechanisms by sympatric Early Pleistocene ungulates: the case study of Coste San Giacomo". Quaternary International. 481: 157–163. Bibcode:2018QuInt.481..157S. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2017.08.064. S2CID 90466225.
- ^ "A mandible of Leptobos (Bovidae, Artiodactyla) from the Lower Pleistocene of Longdan, Gansu, China, and evidence of feline predatory strategy --Addition to the Early Pleistocene Longdan Mammalian Fauna". Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 53 (3). 2015-09-15. ISSN 2096-9899. Archived from the original on 2025-04-24.
- ^ a b c d e f Croitor R. 2013. Eco-morphology and paleoecology of Late Villafranchian large-sized bovids of the genus Leptobos. 9th Romanian Symposium on Paleontology; University of Iași, Iași: 29–30.
- ^ a b Kostopoulos, Dimitris S. (2022), Vlachos, Evangelos (ed.), "The Fossil Record of Bovids (Mammalia: Artiodactyla: Ruminantia: Pecora: Bovidae) in Greece", Fossil Vertebrates of Greece Vol. 2, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 113–203, doi:10.1007/978-3-030-68442-6_5, ISBN 978-3-030-68441-9, retrieved 2025-07-12
- ^ Masini, Federico; Palombo, Maria Rita; Rozzi, Roberto (March 2013). "A reappraisal of the Early to Middle Pleistocene Italian Bovidae". Quaternary International. 288: 45–62. Bibcode:2013QuInt.288...45M. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.03.026.
- ^ van Kolfschoten, T. (2013-01-01), "QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY | Continental Biostratigraphy", in Elias, Scott A.; Mock, Cary J. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science (Second ed.), Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp. 206–214, ISBN 978-0-444-53642-6, retrieved 2021-10-31
- ^ a b Sorbelli, Leonardo; Cherin, Marco; Kostopoulos, Dimitris S.; Sardella, Raffaele; Mecozzi, Beniamino; Plotnikov, Valerii; Prat-Vericat, Maria; Azzarà, Beatrice; Bartolini-Lucenti, Saverio; Madurell-Malapeira, Joan (February 2023). "Earliest bison dispersal in Western Palearctic: Insights from the Eobison record from Pietrafitta (Early Pleistocene, central Italy)". Quaternary Science Reviews. 301 107923. Bibcode:2023QSRv..30107923S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107923.