Leptobos

Quality 0.50 · 2 views · Updated 2 months ago

Extinct genus of mammals

title: "Leptobos" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["prehistoric-bovids", "pleistocene-artiodactyla", "fossil-taxa-described-in-1878", "prehistoric-artiodactyla-genera"] description: "Extinct genus of mammals" topic_path: "general/prehistoric-bovids" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leptobos" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Extinct genus of mammals ::

| fossil_range = | image = Leptobos etruscus 1.JPG | image_caption = Skeleton of Leptobos etruscus | taxon = Leptobos | authority = Rütimeyer, 1878 | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = 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. It is widely posited to be the ancestor of bison.

Description

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Leptobos.jpg" caption="issn=1142-2904}} and have been described as being medium-sized bovines that had relatively slender limbs. The skulls of ''Leptobos'' species are relatively long and narrow and have proportionally elongate molar teeth (though the degree of [[hypsodont]]y varies between species) Females lack [[horn core]]s. 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."] ::

Distribution and ecology

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. Species likely inhabited both open grasslands, forests and mixed forest-grassland environments. The dietary preference across the genus includes species that were browsers, grazers and mixed feeders (both browsing and grazing). 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. Other likely potential predators include sabertooth cats.

Taxonomy and evolution

The genus was first named in 1878 by Swiss paleontologist Ludwig Ruetimeyer, with the type species being Leptobos falconeri, named in the same publication based on remains found in the Siwalik hills of the Indian Subcontinent. The taxonomy of Leptobos is contentious. Authors have often accepted L. stenometopon–L. merlai–L. furtivus and L. etruscus–L. vallisarni as two distinct lineages within Leptobos. 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.

Species

  • 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)
  • Leptobos vallisarni Merla, 1949 (Italy and China) Leptobos is considered to be closely related to the insular genus Epileptobos from the Pleistocene of Java,** which may be a descendant of Leptobos. "Leptobos" syrticus from Libya likely belongs in a different genus.

Evolution

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. 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*.* The earliest appearance of Leptobos in China dates to around 2.55-2.14 million years ago. 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. 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.

References

References

  1. (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.
  2. (July 2017). "New fossils of Bison palaeosinensis (Artiodactyla, Mammalia) from the steppe mammoth site of Early Pleistocene in Nihewan Basin, China". Quaternary International.
  3. (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.
  4. (2007-06-01). "Evolution, ecology and biochronology of herbivore associations in Europe during the last 3 million years". Quaternaire.
  5. D. Mol & J. Mulder. (2019). [https://natuurtijdschriften.nl/pub/1000059 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.
  6. (2018-02-22). "Dietary reconstruction of Plio-Pleistocene proboscideans from the Carpathian Basin of Romania using enamel microwear". Quaternary International.
  7. (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.
  8. (July 2018). "Resource and niche differentiation mechanisms by sympatric Early Pleistocene ungulates: the case study of Coste San Giacomo". Quaternary International.
  9. (2015-09-15). "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.
  10. Kostopoulos, Dimitris S.. (2022). "The Fossil Record of Bovids (Mammalia: Artiodactyla: Ruminantia: Pecora: Bovidae) in Greece". Springer International Publishing.
  11. Croitor R. 2013. [https://geo-paleontologica.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2018/12/9th_RSP.pdf#page=44 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.
  12. (March 2013). "A reappraisal of the Early to Middle Pleistocene Italian Bovidae". Quaternary International.
  13. van Kolfschoten, T.. (2013-01-01). "QUATERNARY STRATIGRAPHY {{!}} Continental Biostratigraphy". Elsevier.
  14. (February 2023). "Earliest bison dispersal in Western Palearctic: Insights from the Eobison record from Pietrafitta (Early Pleistocene, central Italy)". Quaternary Science Reviews.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

prehistoric-bovidspleistocene-artiodactylafossil-taxa-described-in-1878prehistoric-artiodactyla-genera