172-452: Bos bonasus Linnaeus, 1758 The European bison ( pl. : bison) ( Bison bonasus ) or the European wood bison , also known as the wisent ( / ˈ v iː z ə n t / or / ˈ w iː z ə n t / ), the zubr ( / ˈ z uː b ə r / ), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo , is a European species of bison . It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside
344-662: A żubrobizon . The products of a German interbreeding programme were destroyed after the Second World War. This programme was related to the impulse which created the Heck cattle . The cross-bred individuals created at other zoos were eliminated from breed books by the 1950s. A Russian back-breeding programme resulted in a wild herd of hybrid animals, which presently lives in the Caucasian Biosphere Reserve (550 animals in 1999). Wisent-cattle hybrids also occur, similar to
516-475: A matriarchy , as it is the cows of the herd that lead it, and decide where the entire group moves to graze. Although larger and heavier than the females, the oldest and most powerful male bulls are usually satellites that hang around the edges of the herd to protect the group. Bulls begin to serve a more active role in the herd when a danger to the group's safety appears, as well as during the mating season – when they compete with each other. Territory held by bulls
688-423: A mutation–selection balance . It is predicted that a viral quasispecies at a low but evolutionarily neutral and highly connected (that is, flat) region in the fitness landscape will outcompete a quasispecies located at a higher but narrower fitness peak in which the surrounding mutants are unfit, "the quasispecies effect" or the "survival of the flattest". There is no suggestion that a viral quasispecies resembles
860-400: A "classical" method of determining species, such as with Linnaeus, early in evolutionary theory. However, different phenotypes are not necessarily different species (e.g. a four-winged Drosophila born to a two-winged mother is not a different species). Species named in this manner are called morphospecies . In the 1970s, Robert R. Sokal , Theodore J. Crovello and Peter Sneath proposed
1032-444: A "familiarity with the provincia ", which, however, might otherwise be explained. For example, he says In the cultivation of the soil, the manners and civilization of the inhabitants, and the extent of its wealth, it is surpassed by none of the provinces, and, in short, might be more truthfully described as a part of Italy than as a province. denoting a general popular familiarity with the region. Pliny certainly spent some time in
1204-424: A 'smallest clade' idea" (a phylogenetic species concept). Mishler and Wilkins and others concur with this approach, even though this would raise difficulties in biological nomenclature. Wilkins cited the ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan 's early 20th century remark that "a species is whatever a suitably qualified biologist chooses to call a species". Wilkins noted that the philosopher Philip Kitcher called this
1376-516: A bath. In winter, he furnished the copier with gloves and long sleeves so his writing hand would not stiffen with cold (Pliny the Younger in avunculus meus ). His extract collection finally reached about 160 volumes, which Larcius Licinius, the Praetorian legate of Hispania Tarraconensis, unsuccessfully offered to purchase for 400,000 sesterces. That would have been in 73/74 (see above). Pliny bequeathed
1548-549: A brother ( Domitian ) and joint offices with a father, calling that father "great", points certainly to Titus. Pliny also says that Titus had been consul six times. The first six consulships of Titus were in 70, 72, 74, 75, 76, and 77, all conjointly with Vespasian, and the seventh was in 79. This brings the date of the Dedication probably to 77. In that year, Vespasian was 68. He had been ruling conjointly with Titus for some years. The title imperator does not indicate that Titus
1720-655: A campaign against the Germans (a practice which would not have endeared him to the disciplined Pliny). According to his nephew, during this period, he wrote his first book (perhaps in winter quarters when more spare time was available), a work on the use of missiles on horseback, De Jaculatione Equestri ("On the Use of the Dart by Cavalry"). It has not survived, but in Natural History , he seems to reveal at least part of its content, using
1892-428: A connected series of neighbouring populations, each of which can sexually interbreed with adjacent related populations, but for which there exist at least two "end" populations in the series, which are too distantly related to interbreed, though there is a potential gene flow between each "linked" population. Such non-breeding, though genetically connected, "end" populations may co-exist in the same region thus closing
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#17328513865502064-450: A continuous succession. Consequently, Plinian scholars present two to four procuratorships, the four comprising (i) Gallia Narbonensis in 70, (ii) Africa in 70–72, (iii) Hispania Tarraconensis in 72–74, and (iv) Gallia Belgica in 74–76. According to Syme, Pliny may have been "successor to Valerius Paulinus", procurator of Gallia Narbonensis (southeastern France), early in AD 70. He seems to have
2236-560: A day. European bison in the Białowieża Forest in Poland have traditionally been fed hay in the winter for centuries, and large herds may gather around this diet supplement. European bison need to drink every day, and in winter can be seen breaking ice with their heavy hooves. Although superficially similar, a number of physical and behavioural differences are seen between the European bison and
2408-543: A definition for Bíson ( Early Modern English : "a wilde oxe, great eied, broad-faced, that will neuer be tamed" ). In the 18th century the name of the European animal was applied to the closely related American bison (initially in Latin in 1693, by John Ray ) and the Indian bison (the gaur, Bos gaurus ). Historically the word was also applied to Indian domestic cattle, the zebu ( B. indicus or B. primigenius indicus ). Because of
2580-432: A different species from its ancestors. Viruses have enormous populations, are doubtfully living since they consist of little more than a string of DNA or RNA in a protein coat, and mutate rapidly. All of these factors make conventional species concepts largely inapplicable. A viral quasispecies is a group of genotypes related by similar mutations, competing within a highly mutagenic environment, and hence governed by
2752-508: A genetic boundary suitable for defining a species concept is present. DNA barcoding has been proposed as a way to distinguish species suitable even for non-specialists to use. One of the barcodes is a region of mitochondrial DNA within the gene for cytochrome c oxidase . A database, Barcode of Life Data System , contains DNA barcode sequences from over 190,000 species. However, scientists such as Rob DeSalle have expressed concern that classical taxonomy and DNA barcoding, which they consider
2924-440: A gestation period of 264 days, and typically give birth to one calf at a time. On average, male calves weigh 27.6 kg (60.8 lb) at birth, and females 24.4 kg (53.8 lb). Body size in males increases proportionately to the age of 6 years. While females have a higher increase in body mass in their first year, their growth rate is comparatively slower than that of males by the age of 3–5. Bulls reach sexual maturity at
3096-485: A growl-like sound, known in Polish as chruczenie ( [xrutʂɛɲɛ] ). This sound can also be heard from wisent males during the mating season. The similar skeletal morphology of the wisent with the steppe bison ( Bison priscus ) which also formerly inhabited Europe complicates the understanding of the early evolution of the European bison. Genetic evidence indicates that European bison were present across Europe, from France to
3268-465: A lineage should be divided into multiple chronospecies , or when populations have diverged to have enough distinct character states to be described as cladistic species. Species and higher taxa were seen from the time of Aristotle until the 18th century as categories that could be arranged in a hierarchy, the great chain of being . In the 19th century, biologists grasped that species could evolve given sufficient time. Charles Darwin 's 1859 book On
3440-710: A male in the following months, was set free in July 2022 within a 2,500-acre conservation area in West Blean and Thornden Woods , near Canterbury. Unknown to the rangers, one of the females was pregnant and gave birth to a calf in October 2022, marking the first wild bison born in the UK for the first time in millennia. As below-mentioned, there are established herds in Spain , Portugal and Italy , however European bison has not been recorded naturally from
3612-492: A misnomer, need to be reconciled, as they delimit species differently. Genetic introgression mediated by endosymbionts and other vectors can further make barcodes ineffective in the identification of species. A phylogenetic or cladistic species is "the smallest aggregation of populations (sexual) or lineages (asexual) diagnosable by a unique combination of character states in comparable individuals (semaphoronts)". The empirical basis – observed character states – provides
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#17328513865503784-449: A particular species, including which genus (and higher taxa) it is placed in, is a hypothesis about the evolutionary relationships and distinguishability of that group of organisms. As further information comes to hand, the hypothesis may be corroborated or refuted. Sometimes, especially in the past when communication was more difficult, taxonomists working in isolation have given two distinct names to individual organisms later identified as
3956-400: A perfect model of life, it is still a useful tool to scientists and conservationists for studying life on Earth, regardless of the theoretical difficulties. If species were fixed and clearly distinct from one another, there would be no problem, but evolutionary processes cause species to change. This obliges taxonomists to decide, for example, when enough change has occurred to declare that
4128-578: A personal favor. No earlier instances of the Plinii are known. In 59 BC, only about 82 years before Pliny's birth, Julius Caesar founded Novum Comum (reverting to Comum) as a colonia to secure the region against the Alpine tribes , whom he had been unable to defeat. He imported a population of 4,500 from other provinces to be placed in Comasco and 500 aristocratic Greeks to found Novum Comum itself. The community
4300-460: A promotion to military tribune , which was a staff position, with duties assigned by the district commander. Pomponius was a half-brother of Corbulo. They had the same mother, Vistilia , a powerful matron of the Roman upper classes, who had seven children by six husbands, some of whom had imperial connections, including a future empress. Pliny's assignments are not clear, but he must have participated in
4472-682: A separate breeding project in Munich, in 1934. Heck gained the support of then Reichsjägermeister Hermann Göring , who hoped for huntable big game. Heck promised his powerful supporter in writing: "Since surplus bulls will soon be set, the hunting of the Wisent will be possible again in the foreseeable future". Göring himself took over the patronage of the German Professional Association of Wisent Breeders and Hegers, founded at Heck's suggestion. Kurt Priemel, who had since resigned as president of
4644-524: A severe winter killed the first crops planted by the Treviri; they sowed again in March and had "a most abundant harvest." The problem is to identify "this", the year in which the passage was written. Using 77 as the date of composition Syme arrives at AD 74–75 as the date of the procuratorship, when Pliny is presumed to have witnessed these events. The argument is based entirely on presumptions; nevertheless, this date
4816-400: A short way of saying that something applies to many species within a genus, but not to all. If scientists mean that something applies to all species within a genus, they use the genus name without the specific name or epithet. The names of genera and species are usually printed in italics . However, abbreviations such as "sp." should not be italicised. When a species' identity is not clear,
4988-404: A specialist may use "cf." before the epithet to indicate that confirmation is required. The abbreviations "nr." (near) or "aff." (affine) may be used when the identity is unclear but when the species appears to be similar to the species mentioned after. With the rise of online databases, codes have been devised to provide identifiers for species that are already defined, including: The naming of
5160-523: A species as groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations, which are reproductively isolated from other such groups. It has been argued that this definition is a natural consequence of the effect of sexual reproduction on the dynamics of natural selection. Mayr's use of the adjective "potentially" has been a point of debate; some interpretations exclude unusual or artificial matings that occur only in captivity, or that involve animals capable of mating but that do not normally do so in
5332-400: A species as determined by a taxonomist. A typological species is a group of organisms in which individuals conform to certain fixed properties (a type), so that even pre-literate people often recognise the same taxon as do modern taxonomists. The clusters of variations or phenotypes within specimens (such as longer or shorter tails) would differentiate the species. This method was used as
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5504-488: A species. All species definitions assume that an organism acquires its genes from one or two parents very like the "daughter" organism, but that is not what happens in HGT. There is strong evidence of HGT between very dissimilar groups of prokaryotes , and at least occasionally between dissimilar groups of eukaryotes , including some crustaceans and echinoderms . The evolutionary biologist James Mallet concludes that there
5676-685: A species. Generally the term includes the unknown element of a distinct act of creation. Many authors have argued that a simple textbook definition, following Mayr's concept, works well for most multi-celled organisms , but breaks down in several situations: Species identification is made difficult by discordance between molecular and morphological investigations; these can be categorised as two types: (i) one morphology, multiple lineages (e.g. morphological convergence , cryptic species ) and (ii) one lineage, multiple morphologies (e.g. phenotypic plasticity , multiple life-cycle stages). In addition, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) makes it difficult to define
5848-519: A taxonomic decision at the discretion of cognizant specialists, is not governed by the Codes of Zoological or Botanical Nomenclature, in contrast to the PhyloCode , and contrary to what is done in several other fields, in which the definitions of technical terms, like geochronological units and geopolitical entities, are explicitly delimited. The nomenclatural codes that guide the naming of species, including
6020-474: A testament to his father [Ce]ler and his mother [Grania] Marcella The actual words are fragmentary. The reading of the inscription depends on the reconstruction, but in all cases the names come through. Whether he was an augur and whether she was named Grania Marcella are less certain. Jean Hardouin presents a statement from an unknown source that he claims was ancient, that Pliny was from Verona and that his parents were Celer and Marcella. Hardouin also cites
6192-506: A traditional biological species. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses has since 1962 developed a universal taxonomic scheme for viruses; this has stabilised viral taxonomy. Most modern textbooks make use of Ernst Mayr 's 1942 definition, known as the Biological Species Concept as a basis for further discussion on the definition of species. It is also called a reproductive or isolation concept. This defines
6364-447: A variation on the morphological species concept, a phenetic species, defined as a set of organisms with a similar phenotype to each other, but a different phenotype from other sets of organisms. It differs from the morphological species concept in including a numerical measure of distance or similarity to cluster entities based on multivariate comparisons of a reasonably large number of phenotypic traits. A mate-recognition species
6536-515: A variety of reasons. Viruses are a special case, driven by a balance of mutation and selection , and can be treated as quasispecies . Biologists and taxonomists have made many attempts to define species, beginning from morphology and moving towards genetics . Early taxonomists such as Linnaeus had no option but to describe what they saw: this was later formalised as the typological or morphological species concept. Ernst Mayr emphasised reproductive isolation, but this, like other species concepts,
6708-521: A venerable tradition outside Italy). In his next work, Bella Germaniae , Pliny completed the history which Aufidius Bassus left unfinished. Pliny's continuation of Bassus's History was one of the authorities followed by Suetonius and Plutarch . Tacitus also cites Pliny as a source. He is mentioned concerning the loyalty of Burrus , commander of the Praetorian Guard , whom Nero removed for disloyalty. Tacitus portrays parts of Pliny's view of
6880-461: A very ready sleeper, sometimes dropping off in the middle of his studies and then waking up again." A definitive study of the procuratorships of Pliny was compiled by the classical scholar Friedrich Münzer , which was reasserted by Ronald Syme and became a standard reference point. Münzer hypothesized four procuratorships, of which two are certainly attested and two are probable but not certain. However, two does not satisfy Suetonius' description of
7052-575: A wing", responsible for a cavalry battalion of about 480 men. He spent the rest of his military service there. A decorative phalera , or piece of harness, with his name on it has been found at Castra Vetera , modern Xanten, then a large Roman army and naval base on the lower Rhine. Pliny's last commander there, apparently neither a man of letters nor a close friend of his, was Pompeius Paullinus , governor of Germania Inferior AD 55–58. Pliny relates that he personally knew Paulinus to have carried around 12,000 pounds of silver service on which to dine in
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7224-573: A writer (whose works did not survive) in Germania Inferior . In AD 47, he took part in the Roman conquest of the Chauci and the construction of the canal between the rivers Maas and Rhine . His description of the Roman ships anchored in the stream overnight having to ward off floating trees has the stamp of an eyewitness account. At some uncertain date, Pliny was transferred to the command of Germania Superior under Publius Pomponius Secundus with
7396-438: Is "an entity composed of organisms which maintains its identity from other such entities through time and over space, and which has its own independent evolutionary fate and historical tendencies". This differs from the biological species concept in embodying persistence over time. Wiley and Mayden stated that they see the evolutionary species concept as "identical" to Willi Hennig 's species-as-lineages concept, and asserted that
7568-512: Is a borrowing from Polish : żubr [ʐubr] , previously also used to denote one race of the European bison. The Polish żubr is similar to the word for the European bison in other modern Slavic languages , such as Upper Sorbian : žubr and Russian : зубр . The noun for the European bison in all living Slavonic tongues is thought to be derived from Proto-Slavic : *zǫbrъ ~ *izǫbrъ , which itself possibly comes from Proto-Indo-European : *ǵómbʰ- for tooth, horn or peg. The European bison
7740-400: Is a group of sexually reproducing organisms that recognise one another as potential mates. Expanding on this to allow for post-mating isolation, a cohesion species is the most inclusive population of individuals having the potential for phenotypic cohesion through intrinsic cohesion mechanisms; no matter whether populations can hybridise successfully, they are still distinct cohesion species if
7912-452: Is a population of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring , typically by sexual reproduction . It is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity . Other ways of defining species include their karyotype , DNA sequence, morphology , behaviour, or ecological niche . In addition, paleontologists use
8084-740: Is a possibility that the species' range extended to East Thrace during the 7th–8th century AD. Its population in Gaul was extinct in the 8th century AD. The species survived in the Ardennes and the Vosges Mountains until the 15th century. In the Early Middle Ages , the wisent apparently still occurred in the forest steppes east of the Urals, in the Altai Mountains , and seems to have reached Lake Baikal in
8256-458: Is a set of organisms adapted to a particular set of resources, called a niche, in the environment. According to this concept, populations form the discrete phenetic clusters that we recognise as species because the ecological and evolutionary processes controlling how resources are divided up tend to produce those clusters. A genetic species as defined by Robert Baker and Robert Bradley is a set of genetically isolated interbreeding populations. This
8428-414: Is called speciation . Charles Darwin was the first to describe the role of natural selection in speciation in his 1859 book The Origin of Species . Speciation depends on a measure of reproductive isolation , a reduced gene flow. This occurs most easily in allopatric speciation, where populations are separated geographically and can diverge gradually as mutations accumulate. Reproductive isolation
8600-412: Is called the specific name or the specific epithet (in botanical nomenclature , also sometimes in zoological nomenclature ). For example, Boa constrictor is one of the species of the genus Boa , with constrictor being the species' epithet. While the definitions given above may seem adequate at first glance, when looked at more closely they represent problematic species concepts. For example,
8772-444: Is correlated by age, with young bulls aged between five and six tending to form larger home ranges than older males. The European bison does not defend territory, and herd ranges tend to greatly overlap. Core areas of territory are usually sited near meadows and water sources. The rutting season occurs from August through to October. Bulls aged 4–6 years, though sexually mature, are prevented from mating by older bulls. Cows usually have
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#17328513865508944-399: Is dependent on environmental factors, though on average, they number eight to 13 animals per herd. Herds consisting solely of bulls are smaller than mixed ones, containing two individuals on average. European bison herds are not family units. Different herds frequently interact, combine, and quickly split after exchanging individuals. Bison social structure has been described by specialists as
9116-403: Is described formally, in a publication that assigns it a unique scientific name. The description typically provides means for identifying the new species, which may not be based solely on morphology (see cryptic species ), differentiating it from other previously described and related or confusable species and provides a validly published name (in botany) or an available name (in zoology) when
9288-583: Is documented only from the Pre-Boreal . It is not recorded from the British Isles , nor from Italy or the Iberian Peninsula , although prehistorical absence of the species among British Isles is debatable; bison fossils of unclarified species have been found on Doggerland or Brown Bank, and Isle of Wight and Oxfordshire , followed by fossil records of Pleistocene woodland bison and steppe bison from
9460-671: Is further weakened by the existence of microspecies , groups of organisms, including many plants, with very little genetic variability, usually forming species aggregates . For example, the dandelion Taraxacum officinale and the blackberry Rubus fruticosus are aggregates with many microspecies—perhaps 400 in the case of the blackberry and over 200 in the dandelion, complicated by hybridisation , apomixis and polyploidy , making gene flow between populations difficult to determine, and their taxonomy debatable. Species complexes occur in insects such as Heliconius butterflies, vertebrates such as Hypsiboas treefrogs, and fungi such as
9632-726: Is hard or even impossible to test. Later biologists have tried to refine Mayr's definition with the recognition and cohesion concepts, among others. Many of the concepts are quite similar or overlap, so they are not easy to count: the biologist R. L. Mayden recorded about 24 concepts, and the philosopher of science John Wilkins counted 26. Wilkins further grouped the species concepts into seven basic kinds of concepts: (1) agamospecies for asexual organisms (2) biospecies for reproductively isolated sexual organisms (3) ecospecies based on ecological niches (4) evolutionary species based on lineage (5) genetic species based on gene pool (6) morphospecies based on form or phenotype and (7) taxonomic species,
9804-518: Is lighter in body mass, and yet slightly taller at the shoulder, than its American relatives, the wood bison ( Bison bison athabascae ) and the plains bison ( Bison bison bison ). Compared to the American species, the wisent has shorter hair on the neck, head, and forequarters, but longer tail and horns. See differences from American bison . The European bison makes a variety of vocalisations depending on its mood and behaviour, but when anxious, it emits
9976-403: Is no easy way to tell whether related geographic or temporal forms belong to the same or different species. Species gaps can be verified only locally and at a point of time. One is forced to admit that Darwin's insight is correct: any local reality or integrity of species is greatly reduced over large geographic ranges and time periods. The botanist Brent Mishler argued that the species concept
10148-468: Is not valid, notably because gene flux decreases gradually rather than in discrete steps, which hampers objective delimitation of species. Indeed, complex and unstable patterns of gene flux have been observed in cichlid teleosts of the East African Great Lakes . Wilkins argued that "if we were being true to evolution and the consequent phylogenetic approach to taxa, we should replace it with
10320-588: Is required to achieve Suetonius' continuity of procuratorships, if the one in Gallia Belgica occurred. Pliny was allowed home (Rome) at some time in AD 75–76. He was presumably at home for the first official release of Natural History in 77. Whether he was in Rome for the dedication of Vespasian's Temple of Peace in the Forum in 75, which was in essence a museum for display of art works plundered by Nero and formerly adorning
10492-586: Is similar to Mayr's Biological Species Concept, but stresses genetic rather than reproductive isolation. In the 21st century, a genetic species could be established by comparing DNA sequences. Earlier, other methods were available, such as comparing karyotypes (sets of chromosomes ) and allozymes ( enzyme variants). An evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) or "wildlife species" is a population of organisms considered distinct for purposes of conservation. In palaeontology , with only comparative anatomy (morphology) and histology from fossils as evidence,
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#173285138655010664-566: Is sometimes an important source of genetic variation. Viruses can transfer genes between species. Bacteria can exchange plasmids with bacteria of other species, including some apparently distantly related ones in different phylogenetic domains , making analysis of their relationships difficult, and weakening the concept of a bacterial species. Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24–79), known in English as Pliny
10836-765: Is the heaviest surviving wild land animal in Europe. Similar to their American cousins, European bison were potentially larger historically than remnant descendants; modern animals are about 2.8 to 3.3 m (9.2 to 10.8 ft) in length, not counting a tail of 30 to 92 cm (12 to 36 in), 1.8 to 2.1 m (5.9 to 6.9 ft) in height, and 615 to 920 kg (1,356 to 2,028 lb) in weight for males, and about 2.4 to 2.9 m (7.9 to 9.5 ft) in body length without tails, 1.69 to 1.97 m (5.5 to 6.5 ft) in height, and 424 to 633 kg (935 to 1,396 lb) in weight for females. At birth, calves are quite small, weighing between 15 and 35 kg (33 and 77 lb). In
11008-594: Is threatened by hybridisation, but this can be selected against once a pair of populations have incompatible alleles of the same gene, as described in the Bateson–Dobzhansky–Muller model . A different mechanism, phyletic speciation, involves one lineage gradually changing over time into a new and distinct form (a chronospecies ), without increasing the number of resultant species. Horizontal gene transfer between organisms of different species, either through hybridisation , antigenic shift , or reassortment ,
11180-455: Is trained from his very cradle and perfected." It was followed by eight books entitled Dubii sermonis ( Of Doubtful Phraseology ). These are both now lost works . His nephew relates: "He wrote this under Nero, in the last years of his reign, when every kind of literary pursuit which was in the least independent or elevated had been rendered dangerous by servitude." In 68, Nero no longer had any friends and supporters. He committed suicide, and
11352-555: The American bison . The European bison is the heaviest wild land animal in Europe , and individuals in the past may have been even larger than their modern-day descendants. During late antiquity and the Middle Ages , bison became extinct in much of Europe and Asia , surviving into the 20th century only in northern-central Europe and the northern Caucasus Mountains . During the early years of
11524-524: The Białowieża Forest (on today's Belarus–Poland border ) in 1921. The last of the Caucasian wisent subspecies ( B. b. caucasicus ) was shot in the northwestern Caucasus in 1927. The Carpathian wisent ( B. b. hungarorum ) had been hunted to extinction by 1852. The Białowieża or lowland European bison was kept alive in captivity, and has since been reintroduced into several countries in Europe. In 1996,
11696-523: The ICZN for animals and the ICN for plants, do not make rules for defining the boundaries of the species. Research can change the boundaries, also known as circumscription, based on new evidence. Species may then need to be distinguished by the boundary definitions used, and in such cases the names may be qualified with sensu stricto ("in the narrow sense") to denote usage in the exact meaning given by an author such as
11868-595: The Iberian and Italian Peninsulas , while these regions were once inhabited by Pleistocene woodland bison and Steppe bison. The total worldwide population recorded in 2019 was around 7,500 – about half of this number being in Poland and Belarus , with over 25% of the global population located in Poland alone. For 2016, the number was 6,573 (including 4,472 free-ranging) and has been increasing. Some local populations are estimated as: Species A species ( pl. : species)
12040-487: The International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the European bison as an endangered species , no longer extinct in the wild. Its status has improved since then, changing to vulnerable and later to near-threatened . European bison were first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Some later descriptions treat the European bison as conspecific with the American bison. Three subspecies of
12212-583: The King James Version gives "bison" as a gloss for the Biblical animal called the " pygarg " mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy . Randle Cotgrave 's 1611 French–English dictionary notes that French : bison was already in use, and it may have influenced the adoption of the word into English, or alternatively it may have been borrowed direct from Latin. John Minsheu 's 1617 lexicon, Ductor in linguas , gives
12384-710: The Pisonian conspiracy to kill Nero and make Piso emperor as "absurd" and mentions that he could not decide whether Pliny's account or that of Messalla was more accurate concerning some of the details of the Year of the Four Emperors . Evidently Pliny's extension of Bassus extended at least from the reign of Nero to that of Vespasian. Pliny seems to have known it was going to be controversial, as he deliberately reserved it for publication after his death: It has been long completed and its accuracy confirmed; but I have determined to commit
12556-581: The Russian tsars retained old Polish-Lithuanian laws protecting the European bison herd in Białowieża. Despite these measures and others, the European bison population continued to decline over the following century, with only Białowieża and Northern Caucasus populations surviving into the 20th century. The last European bison in Transylvania died in 1790. During World War I , occupying German troops killed 600 of
12728-768: The Union of Lublin became part of the Polish Crown. In the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , at first European bison in the Białowieża Forest were legally the property of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania and later belonged to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland . Polish-Lithuanian rulers took measures to protect the European bison, such as King Sigismund II Augustus who instituted the death penalty for poaching bison in Białowieża in
12900-399: The fly agaric . Natural hybridisation presents a challenge to the concept of a reproductively isolated species, as fertile hybrids permit gene flow between two populations. For example, the carrion crow Corvus corone and the hooded crow Corvus cornix appear and are classified as separate species, yet they can hybridise where their geographical ranges overlap. A ring species is
13072-498: The jaguar ( Panthera onca ) of Latin America or the leopard ( Panthera pardus ) of Africa and Asia. In contrast, the scientific names of species are chosen to be unique and universal (except for some inter-code homonyms ); they are in two parts used together : the genus as in Puma , and the specific epithet as in concolor . A species is given a taxonomic name when a type specimen
13244-406: The "cynical species concept", and arguing that far from being cynical, it usefully leads to an empirical taxonomy for any given group, based on taxonomists' experience. Other biologists have gone further and argued that we should abandon species entirely, and refer to the "Least Inclusive Taxonomic Units" (LITUs), a view that would be coherent with current evolutionary theory. The species concept
13416-758: The 15th and 18th centuries, those in the forest of Białowieża were protected and their diet supplemented. Efforts to restore this species to the wild began in 1929, with the establishment of the Bison Restitution Centre at Białowieża, Poland. Subsequently, in 1948, the Bison Breeding Centre was established within the Prioksko-Terrasny Biosphere Reserve . The modern herds are managed as two separate lines – one consisting of only Bison bonasus bonasus (all descended from only seven animals) and one consisting of all 12 ancestors, including
13588-472: The 19th century, there were scattered reports of wolves , lions , tigers , and bears hunting bison. In the past, especially during the Middle Ages, humans commonly killed bison for their hide and meat. They used their horns to make drinking horns . European bison were hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 20th century, with the last wild animals of the B. b. bonasus subspecies being shot in
13760-482: The 20th century, bison were hunted to extinction in the wild . By the late 2010s, the species numbered several thousand and had been returned to the wild by captive breeding programmes. It is no longer in immediate danger of extinction, but remains absent from most of its historical range. It is not to be confused with the aurochs ( Bos primigenius ), the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle , with which it once co-existed. Besides humans, bison have few predators. In
13932-590: The 4th century BC, during the Hellenistic period , Aristotle referred to bison as βόνασος , bónasos . He also noted that the Paeonians called it μόναπος ( monapos ). Claudius Aelianus , writing in the late 2nd or early 3rd centuries AD, also referred to the species as βόνασος , and both Pliny the Elder 's Natural History and Gaius Julius Solinus used Latin : bĭson and bonāsus . Both Martial and Seneca
14104-405: The American bison. The bison has 14 pairs of ribs, while the American bison has 15. Adult European bison are (on average) taller than American bison, and have longer legs. European bison tend to browse more, and graze less than their American relatives; to accommodate this their necks are set differently. Compared to the American bison, the nose of the European bison is set further forward than
14276-405: The American ones, and breed with domestic cattle less readily. The European bison is less shaggy, with a more lanky body shape. In terms of behavioural capability, European bison runs slower and with less stamina yet jumps higher and longer than American bisons, showing signs of more developed adaptations into mountainous habitats. The protection of the European bison has a long history; between
14448-457: The Balkans in the area of modern borderline between Greece , North Macedonia and Bulgaria date to the 3rd century AD. In northern Bulgaria , the wisent was thought to have survived until the 9th or 10th century AD, but more recent data summary shows that the species survived up to 13th - 14th century AD in eastern Bulgaria and up to 16th - 17th century AD in the northern part of the country. There
14620-428: The Białowieża Forest regained its position as the location with the world's largest population of European bison, including those in the wild. In 2005–2007, a wild bison nicknamed Pubal became renowned in southeast Poland due to his friendly interactions with humans and unwillingness to reintegrate into the wild. As of 2014 there were 1,434 wisents in Poland, out of which 1,212 were in free-range herds and 522 belonged to
14792-757: The Caucasus during the Last Glacial Period , where they co-existed alongside steppe bison. Late Pleistocene European bison belong to two mitochondrial lineages, which are estimated to have split over 400,000 years ago, Bb1 (also known as Bison X) and Bb2. Bb1 became extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene, with all modern European bison belonging to the Bb2 lineage. At the end of the Last Glacial Period steppe bison became extinct in Europe, leaving European bison as
14964-685: The Domus Aurea, is uncertain, as is his possible command of the vigiles (night watchmen), a lesser post. No actual post is discernible for this period. On the bare circumstances, he was an official agent of the emperor in a quasiprivate capacity. Perhaps he was between posts. In any case, his appointment as commander of the imperial fleet at Misenum took him there, where he resided with his sister and nephew. Vespasian died of disease on 23 June 79. Pliny outlived him by four months. During Nero's reign of terror, Pliny avoided working on any writing that would attract attention to himself. His works on oratory in
15136-560: The Elder ( / ˈ p l ɪ n i / PLIN -ee ), was a Roman author, naturalist , natural philosopher , and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire , and a friend of the emperor Vespasian . He wrote the encyclopedic Naturalis Historia ( Natural History ), a comprehensive thirty-seven-volume work covering a vast array of topics on human knowledge and the natural world, which became an editorial model for encyclopedias. He spent most of his spare time studying, writing, and investigating natural and geographic phenomena in
15308-546: The Elder decided to investigate the eruption of Mount Vesuvius , and was sidetracked by the need for rescue operations and a messenger from his friend asking for assistance. Pliny's father took him to Rome to be educated in lawmaking. Pliny relates that he saw Marcus Servilius Nonianus . In AD 46, at about age 23, Pliny entered the army as a junior officer, as was the custom for young men of equestrian rank. Ronald Syme , Plinian scholar, reconstructs three periods at three ranks. Pliny's interest in Roman literature attracted
15480-530: The European bison existed in the recent past, but only one, the nominate subspecies ( B. b. bonasus ), survives today. The ancestry and relationships of the wisent to fossil bison species remain controversial and disputed. The European bison is one of the national animals of Poland and Belarus. The ancient Greeks and ancient Romans were the first to name bison as such; the 2nd-century AD authors Pausanias and Oppian referred to them as Hellenistic Greek : βίσων , romanized: bisōn . Earlier, in
15652-496: The European bison in the Białowieża Forest for sport, meat, hides and horns. A German scientist informed army officers that the European bison were facing imminent extinction, but at the very end of the war, retreating German soldiers shot all but nine animals. The last wild European bison in Poland was killed in 1921. The last wild European bison in the world was killed by poachers in 1927 in the western Caucasus . By that year, 48 remained, all held by zoos. The International Society for
15824-601: The European bison, where the bison population doubled between 1995 and 2017, reaching 2,269 by the end of 2019 – the total population has been increasing by around 15% to 18% yearly. In July 2022 a small population was released into woodland by Canterbury in Kent to trial their reintroduction into the UK. In May 2024, a small population was released in central Portugal. In 2012 and 2019 bisons were released in protected areas on Bornholm and Northern Jutland, Denmark. A 2003 study of mitochondrial DNA indicated four distinct maternal lineages in
15996-539: The International Society for the Preservation of the Wisent, warned in vain against "manification". Heck answered by announcing that Göring would take action against Priemel if he continued to oppose his crossing plans. Priemel was then banned from publishing in relation to bison breeding, and the regular bookkeeper of the International Society, Erna Mohr, was forced to hand over the official register in 1937. Thus,
16168-522: The North American beefalo . Cattle and European bison hybridise fairly readily. First-generation males are infertile. In 1847, a herd of wisent-cattle hybrids named żubroń ( / ˈ ʒ uː b r ɒ nj / ) was created by Leopold Walicki. The animals were intended to become durable and cheap alternatives to cattle. The experiment was continued by researchers from the Polish Academy of Sciences until
16340-622: The Origin of Species explained how species could arise by natural selection . That understanding was greatly extended in the 20th century through genetics and population ecology . Genetic variability arises from mutations and recombination , while organisms themselves are mobile, leading to geographical isolation and genetic drift with varying selection pressures . Genes can sometimes be exchanged between species by horizontal gene transfer ; new species can arise rapidly through hybridisation and polyploidy ; and species may become extinct for
16512-556: The Polish Hunting Association and the Poznań zoological gardens, as well as a number of Polish private individuals, who provided funds to acquire the first bison cows and bulls. The breeding book was published in the company's annual report from 1932. While Priemel aimed to grow the population slowly with pure conservation of the breeding line, Lutz Heck planned to grow the population faster by cross-breeding with American bison in
16684-597: The Preservation of the Wisent was founded on 25 and 26 August 1923 in Berlin, following the example of the American Bison Society . The first chairman was Kurt Priemel, director of the Frankfurt Zoo , and among the members were experts like Hermann Pohle, Max Hilzheimer and Julius Riemer . The first goal of the society was to take stock of all living bison, in preparation for a breeding programme. Important members were
16856-520: The Wildwood Trust and Kent Wildlife Trust , introduced European bison to the UK for the first time in 6000 years (although there was an unsuccessful attempt in Scotland in 2011, and the European bison is not confirmed to be native to England while the British Isles once used to be inhabited by now-extinct Steppe bison and Pleistocene woodland bison ). The herd of 3 females, with plans to also release
17028-610: The Younger mention bison ( pl . bisontes ). Later Latin spellings of the term included visontes , vesontes , and bissontes . John Trevisa is the earliest author cited by the Oxford English Dictionary as using, in his 1398 translation of Bartholomeus Anglicus 's De proprietatibus rerum , the Latin plural bisontes in English, as "bysontes" ( Middle English : byſontes and bysountes ). Philemon Holland 's 1601 translation of Pliny's Natural History , referred to "bisontes". The marginalia of
17200-405: The abbreviation "sp." in the singular or "spp." (standing for species pluralis , Latin for "multiple species") in the plural in place of the specific name or epithet (e.g. Canis sp.). This commonly occurs when authors are confident that some individuals belong to a particular genus but are not sure to which exact species they belong, as is common in paleontology . Authors may also use "spp." as
17372-553: The affiliation between wisent and cattle nuclear genomes (in contrast to mitochondrial ones). Alternatively, genome sequencing completed on remains attributed to the Pleistocene woodland bison ( B. schoetensacki ), and published in 2017, posited that genetic similarities between the Pleistocene woodland bison and the wisent suggest that B. schoetensaki was the ancestor of the European wisent. However, other studies have disputed
17544-504: The age of two, while cows do so in their third year. European bison have lived as long as 30 years in captivity, but in the wild their lifespan is usually between 18 and 24 years, with females living longer than males. Productive breeding years are between four and 20 years of age in females, and only between six and 12 years of age in males. European bison feed predominantly on grasses, although they also browse on shoots and leaves; in summer, an adult male can consume 32 kg of food in
17716-570: The amount of hybridisation is insufficient to completely mix their respective gene pools . A further development of the recognition concept is provided by the biosemiotic concept of species. In microbiology , genes can move freely even between distantly related bacteria, possibly extending to the whole bacterial domain. As a rule of thumb, microbiologists have assumed that members of Bacteria or Archaea with 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences more similar than 97% to each other need to be checked by DNA–DNA hybridisation to decide if they belong to
17888-449: The attention and friendship of other men of letters in the higher ranks, with whom he formed lasting friendships. Later, these friendships assisted his entry into the upper echelons of the state; however, he was trusted for his knowledge and ability, as well. According to Syme, he began as a praefectus cohortis , a "commander of a cohort " (an infantry cohort, as junior officers began in the infantry), under Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo , himself
18060-546: The attention of Nero, who was a dangerous acquaintance. Under Nero, Pliny lived mainly in Rome. He mentions the map of Armenia and the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea , which was sent to Rome by the staff of Corbulo in 58. He also witnessed the construction of Nero's Domus Aurea or "Golden House" after the Great Fire of Rome in 64. Besides pleading law cases, Pliny wrote, researched, and studied. His second published work
18232-419: The attribution of the remains to this species, otherwise known from remains hundreds of thousands of years older, instead referring them to an unnamed lineage of bison closely related to B. bonasus . A 2018 study proposed that the lineage leading to the wisent and to the lineage ancestral to both the American bison and Bison priscus had split over 1 million years ago, with the mitochondrial DNA discrepancy being
18404-474: The biological species concept, "the several versions" of the phylogenetic species concept, and the idea that species are of the same kind as higher taxa are not suitable for biodiversity studies (with the intention of estimating the number of species accurately). They further suggested that the concept works for both asexual and sexually-reproducing species. A version of the concept is Kevin de Queiroz 's "General Lineage Concept of Species". An ecological species
18576-505: The biological species concept, a cladistic species does not rely on reproductive isolation – its criteria are independent of processes that are integral in other concepts. Therefore, it applies to asexual lineages. However, it does not always provide clear cut and intuitively satisfying boundaries between taxa, and may require multiple sources of evidence, such as more than one polymorphic locus, to give plausible results. An evolutionary species, suggested by George Gaylord Simpson in 1951,
18748-528: The bison and bovine species diverged from about 1.7 to 0.85 Mya, through a speciation process involving limited gene flow. These data further support the occurrence of more recent secondary contacts, posterior to the divergence between Bos primigenius primigenius and B. p. namadicus (ca. 150,000 years ago), between the wisent and (European) taurine cattle lineages. An independent study of mitochondrial DNA and autosomal markers confirmed these secondary contacts (with an estimate of up to 10% of bovine ancestry in
18920-428: The boundaries between closely related species become unclear with hybridisation , in a species complex of hundreds of similar microspecies , and in a ring species . Also, among organisms that reproduce only asexually , the concept of a reproductive species breaks down, and each clone is potentially a microspecies. Although none of these are entirely satisfactory definitions, and while the concept of species may not be
19092-465: The campaign against the Chatti of AD 50, at age 27, in his fourth year of service. Associated with the commander in the praetorium , he became a familiar and close friend of Pomponius, who also was a man of letters. At another uncertain date, Pliny was transferred back to Germania Inferior. Corbulo had moved on, assuming command in the east. This time, Pliny was promoted to praefectus alae , "commander of
19264-521: The charge of it to my heirs, lest I should have been suspected, during my lifetime, of having been unduly influenced by ambition. By this means I confer an obligation on those who occupy the same ground with myself; and also on posterity, who, I am aware, will contend with me, as I have done with my predecessors. Pliny's last work, according to his nephew, was the Naturalis Historia ( Natural History ), an encyclopedia into which he collected much of
19436-433: The concept of a chronospecies can be applied. During anagenesis (evolution, not necessarily involving branching), some palaeontologists seek to identify a sequence of species, each one derived from the phyletically extinct one before through continuous, slow and more or less uniform change. In such a time sequence, some palaeontologists assess how much change is required for a morphologically distinct form to be considered
19608-416: The concept of the chronospecies since fossil reproduction cannot be examined. The most recent rigorous estimate for the total number of species of eukaryotes is between 8 and 8.7 million. About 14% of these had been described by 2011. All species (except viruses ) are given a two-part name , called a "binomial". The first part of a binomial is the genus to which the species belongs. The second part
19780-572: The conterraneity (see below) of Catullus . How the inscription got to Verona is unknown, but it could have arrived by dispersal of property from Pliny the Younger 's estate at Colle Plinio , north of Città di Castello , identified with certainty by his initials in the roof tiles. He kept statues of his ancestors there. Pliny the Elder was born at Como , not at Verona: it is only as a native of old Gallia Transpadana that he calls Catullus of Verona his conterraneus , or fellow-countryman, not his municeps , or fellow-townsman. A statue of Pliny on
19952-469: The customs of our forefathers ( veterum more interdiu ). Pliny the Younger wanted to convey that Pliny the Elder was a "good Roman", which means that he maintained the customs of the great Roman forefathers. This statement would have pleased Tacitus. Two inscriptions identifying the hometown of Pliny the Younger as Como take precedence over the Verona theory. One ( CIL V 5262 ) commemorates the younger's career as
20124-499: The dedication. The only certain fact is that Pliny died in AD 79. Natural History is one of the largest single works to have survived from the Roman Empire and was intended to cover the entire field of ancient knowledge, based on the best authorities available to Pliny. He claims to be the only Roman ever to have undertaken such a work. It encompasses the fields of botany , zoology , astronomy , geology, and mineralogy , as well as
20296-623: The east. The northern boundary in the Holocene was probably around 60°N in Finland. European bison survived in a few natural forests in Europe, but their numbers dwindled. In 1513 the Białowieża Forest , at this point one of the last areas on Earth where the European bison still roamed free, was transferred from the Troki Voivodeship of Lithuania to the Podlaskie Voivodeship , which after
20468-443: The economy on a sound footing. He needed in his administration all the loyalty and assistance he could find. Pliny, apparently trusted without question, perhaps (reading between the lines) recommended by Vespasian's son Titus , was put to work immediately and was kept in a continuous succession of the most distinguished procuratorships, according to Suetonius . A procurator was generally a governor of an imperial province. The empire
20640-435: The evidence to support hypotheses about evolutionarily divergent lineages that have maintained their hereditary integrity through time and space. Molecular markers may be used to determine diagnostic genetic differences in the nuclear or mitochondrial DNA of various species. For example, in a study done on fungi , studying the nucleotide characters using cladistic species produced the most accurate results in recognising
20812-420: The exploitation of those resources. It remains a standard work for the Roman period and the advances in technology and understanding of natural phenomena at the time. His discussions of some technical advances are the only sources for those inventions, such as hushing in mining technology or the use of water mills for crushing or grinding grain. Much of what he wrote about has been confirmed by archaeology . It
20984-500: The extracts to his nephew. When composition of Natural History began is unknown. Since he was preoccupied with his other works under Nero and then had to finish the history of his times, he is unlikely to have begun before 70. The procuratorships offered the ideal opportunity for an encyclopedic frame of mind. The date of an overall composition cannot be assigned to any one year. The dates of different parts must be determined, if they can, by philological analysis (the post mortem of
21156-507: The façade of the Como Cathedral celebrates him as a native son. He had a sister, Plinia, who married into the Caecilii and was the mother of his nephew, Pliny the Younger, whose letters describe his work and study regimen in detail. In one of his letters to Tacitus ( avunculus meus ), Pliny the Younger details how his uncle's breakfasts would be light and simple ( levis et facilis ) following
21328-470: The field. Among Pliny's greatest works was the twenty-volume Bella Germaniae ("The History of the German Wars"), which is no longer extant . Bella Germaniae , which began where Aufidius Bassus ' Libri Belli Germanici ("The War with the Germans") left off, was used as a source by other prominent Roman historians, including Plutarch , Tacitus , and Suetonius . Tacitus may have used Bella Germaniae as
21500-404: The fifth century, Symmachus had little hope of finding a copy. Like Caligula, Nero seemed to grow gradually more insane as his reign progressed. Pliny devoted much of his time to writing on the comparatively safe subjects of grammar and rhetoric. He published a three-book, six-volume educational manual on rhetoric, entitled Studiosus , "The Student". Pliny the Younger says of it: "The orator
21672-431: The forehead when the neck is in a neutral position. The body of the wisent is less hairy, though its tail is hairier than that of the American species. The horns of the European bison point forward through the plane of their faces, making them more adept at fighting through the interlocking of horns in the same manner as domestic cattle, unlike the American bison, which favours charging. European bison are less tameable than
21844-468: The free-ranging population of the Białowieża Forest of Belarus and Poland, body masses among adults (aged 6 and over) are 634 kg (1,398 lb) on average in the cases of males, and 424 kg (935 lb) among females. An occasional big bull European bison can weigh up to 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) or more with old bull records of 1,900 kg (4,200 lb) for lowland wisent and 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) for Caucasian wisent. On average, it
22016-554: The imperial magistrate and details his considerable charitable and municipal expenses on behalf of the people of Como. Another (CIL V 5667) identifies his father Lucius' village as present-day Fecchio (tribe Oufentina), a hamlet of Cantù , near Como. Therefore, Plinia likely was a local girl and Pliny the Elder, her brother, was from Como. Gaius was a member of the Plinia gens : the Insubric root Plina still persists, with rhotacism , in
22188-944: The isles. Furthermore, a 16-kyr-old specimen belonging to the ancient Bison X group of European bison has been found in Northern Italy. The extinct steppe bison ( B. priscus ) is known from across Eurasia and North America, last occurring 7,000 BC to 5,400 BC, and is depicted in the Cave of Altamira and Lascaux . The Pleistocene woodland bison ( B. schoetensacki ) has been proposed to have last existed around 36,000 BC. But other authors restrict B. schoetensacki to remains that are hundreds of thousands of years older. Cave paintings appear to distinguish between B. bonasus and B. priscus . Within mainland Europe, its range decreased as human populations expanded and cut down forests. They seemed to be common in Aristotle 's period on Mount Mesapion (possibly
22360-433: The knowledge of his time. Some historians consider this to be the first encyclopedia written. It comprised 37 books. His sources were personal experience, his own prior works (such as the work on Germania), and extracts from other works. These extracts were collected in the following manner: One servant would read aloud, and another would write the extract as dictated by Pliny. He is said to have dictated extracts while taking
22532-577: The largest free-living European bison population in the world with around 1000 wild bison counted in 2014. Herds have also been introduced in Moldova (2005), Spain (2010), Denmark (2012), the Czech Republic (2014), and Portugal (2024) Reintroduction of bison to a 20 square mile grasslands area in the Țarcu Mountains of Romania in 2014 was found to have resulted in an additional 54,000 tons of carbon draw-down annually. The Wilder Blean project, headed up by
22704-462: The last years of Nero's reign (67–68) focused on form rather than on content. He began working on content again probably after Vespasian's rule began in AD 69, when the terror clearly was over and would not be resumed. It was to some degree reinstituted (and later cancelled by his son Titus) when Vespasian suppressed the philosophers at Rome, but not Pliny, who was not among them, representing, as he says, something new in Rome, an encyclopedist (certainly,
22876-407: The late 1980s. Although the program resulted in a quite successful animal that was both hardy and could be bred in marginal grazing lands, it was eventually discontinued. Currently, the only surviving żubroń herd consists of just a few animals in Białowieża Forest, Poland and Belarus. In 2016, the first whole genome sequencing data from two European bison bulls from the Białowieża Forest revealed that
23048-575: The latter to inherit the entire estate. The adoption is called a "testamental adoption" by writers on the topic, who assert that it applied to the name change only, but Roman jurisprudence recognizes no such category. Pliny the Younger thus became the adopted son of Pliny the Elder after the latter's death. For at least some of the time, however, Pliny the Elder resided in the same house in Misenum with his sister and nephew (whose husband and father, respectively, had died young); they were living there when Pliny
23220-535: The local surname "Prina". He did not take his father's cognomen , Celer, but assumed his own, Secundus. As his adopted son took the same cognomen, Pliny founded a branch, the Plinii Secundi. The family was prosperous; Pliny the Younger's combined inherited estates made him so wealthy that he could found a school and a library, endow a fund to feed the women and children of Como, and own numerous estates around Rome and Lake Como, as well as enrich some of his friends as
23392-512: The mid-16th century. Wild European bison herds existed in the forest until the mid-17th century. In 1701, King Augustus II the Strong greatly increased protection over the forest; the first written sources mentioning the use of some forest meadows for the production of winter fodder for the bison come from this period. In the early 19th century, after the partitions of the Polish Commonwealth ,
23564-505: The modern Ograzhden ). In the same wider area Pausanias calling them Paeonian bulls and bison , gives details on how they were captured alive; adding also the fact that a golden Paeonian bull head was offered to Delphi by the Paeonian king Dropion (3rd century BC) who lived in what is today Tikveš . The last references ( Oppian , Claudius Aelianus ) to the animal in the transitional Mediterranean / Continental biogeographical region in
23736-402: The modern wisent genome) leading the authors to go further in their conclusions by proposing the wisent to be a hybrid between steppe bison and aurochs with a hybridisation event originating before 120,000 years ago. However, other studies considered the 10% estimate for aurochs gene flow a gross overstimate and based on flawed data, and not supported by the data from the full nuclear genome of
23908-463: The movements of the horse to assist the javelin -man in throwing missiles while astride its back. During this period, he also dreamed that the spirit of Drusus Nero begged him to save his memory from oblivion. The dream prompted Pliny to begin forthwith a history of all the wars between the Romans and the Germans, which he did not complete for some years. At the earliest time that Pliny could have left
24080-478: The numerous fungi species of all the concepts studied. Versions of the phylogenetic species concept that emphasise monophyly or diagnosability may lead to splitting of existing species, for example in Bovidae , by recognising old subspecies as species, despite the fact that there are no reproductive barriers, and populations may intergrade morphologically. Others have called this approach taxonomic inflation , diluting
24252-445: The older society was effectively incorporated into the newly created Professional Association. After the Second World War, therefore, only the pure-blooded bison in the game park Springe near Hanover were recognised as part of the international herd book. The first two bison were released into the wild in the Białowieża Forest in 1929. By 1964 more than 100 existed. Over the following decades, thanks to Polish and international efforts,
24424-689: The one B. b. caucasicus bull. The latter is generally not considered a separate subspecies because they contain DNA from both B. b. bonasus and B. b. caucasicius , although some scientists classify them as a new subspecies, B. b. montanus . Only a limited amount of inbreeding depression from the population bottleneck has been found, having a small effect on skeletal growth in cows and a small rise in calf mortality. Genetic variability continues to shrink. From five initial bulls, all current European bison bulls have one of only two remaining Y chromosomes . Beginning in 1951, European bison have been reintroduced into
24596-783: The only bison species in the region. Historically, the lowland European bison's range encompassed most of the lowlands of northern Europe, extending from the Massif Central to the Volga River and the Caucasus . It may have once lived in the Asiatic part of what is now the Russian Federation , reaching to Lake Baikal and Altai Mountains in east. The European bison is known in southern Sweden only between 9500 and 8700 BP , and in Denmark similarly
24768-585: The paper is accepted for publication. The type material is usually held in a permanent repository, often the research collection of a major museum or university, that allows independent verification and the means to compare specimens. Describers of new species are asked to choose names that, in the words of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature , are "appropriate, compact, euphonious, memorable, and do not cause offence". Books and articles sometimes intentionally do not identify species fully, using
24940-674: The person who named the species, while the antonym sensu lato ("in the broad sense") denotes a wider usage, for instance including other subspecies. Other abbreviations such as "auct." ("author"), and qualifiers such as "non" ("not") may be used to further clarify the sense in which the specified authors delineated or described the species. Species are subject to change, whether by evolving into new species, exchanging genes with other species, merging with other species or by becoming extinct. The evolutionary process by which biological populations of sexually-reproducing organisms evolve to become distinct or reproductively isolated as species
25112-489: The primary source for his work, De origine et situ Germanorum ("On the Origin and Situation of the Germans"). Pliny the Elder died in AD 79 in Stabiae while attempting the rescue of a friend and her family from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius . Pliny's dates are pinned to the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 and a statement by his nephew that he died in his 56th year, which would put his birth in AD 23 or 24. Pliny
25284-577: The province of Africa , most likely as a procurator. Among other events or features that he saw are the provoking of rubetae , poisonous toads ( Bufonidae ), by the Psylli ; the buildings made with molded earthen walls, "superior in solidity to any cement;" and the unusual, fertile seaside oasis of Gabès (then Tacape), Tunisia, currently a World Heritage Site . Syme assigns the African procuratorship to AD 70–72. The procuratorship of Hispania Tarraconensis
25456-529: The reader". As this is the only geographic region for which he gives this information, Syme hypothesizes that Pliny contributed to the census of Hither Hispania conducted in 73/74 by Vibius Crispus, legate from the Emperor, thus dating Pliny's procuratorship there. During his stay in Hispania, he became familiar with the agriculture and especially the gold mines of the north and west of the country. His descriptions of
25628-516: The reign of terror was at an end, as was the interlude in Pliny's obligation to the state. At the end of AD 69, after a year of civil war consequent on the death of Nero, Vespasian , a successful general, became emperor. Like Pliny, he had come from the equestrian class, rising through the ranks of the army and public offices and defeating the other contenders for the highest office. His main tasks were to re-establish peace under imperial control and to place
25800-443: The result of incomplete lineage sorting. The authors also proposed that during the late Middle Pleistocene there had been interbreeding between the ancestor of the wisent and the common ancestor of Bison priscus and the American bison. The European bison is a herd animal , which lives in both mixed and solely male groups. Mixed groups consist of adult females, calves, young aged 2–3 years, and young adult bulls. The average herd size
25972-487: The result of misclassification leading to questions on whether there really are any ring species. The commonly used names for kinds of organisms are often ambiguous: "cat" could mean the domestic cat, Felis catus , or the cat family, Felidae . Another problem with common names is that they often vary from place to place, so that puma, cougar, catamount, panther, painter and mountain lion all mean Puma concolor in various parts of America, while "panther" may also mean
26144-573: The ring. Ring species thus present a difficulty for any species concept that relies on reproductive isolation. However, ring species are at best rare. Proposed examples include the herring gull – lesser black-backed gull complex around the North pole, the Ensatina eschscholtzii group of 19 populations of salamanders in America, and the greenish warbler in Asia, but many so-called ring species have turned out to be
26316-508: The same species. This concept was narrowed in 2006 to a similarity of 98.7%. The average nucleotide identity (ANI) method quantifies genetic distance between entire genomes , using regions of about 10,000 base pairs . With enough data from genomes of one genus, algorithms can be used to categorize species, as for Pseudomonas avellanae in 2013, and for all sequenced bacteria and archaea since 2020. Observed ANI values among sequences appear to have an "ANI gap" at 85–95%, suggesting that
26488-529: The same species. When two species names are discovered to apply to the same species, the older species name is given priority and usually retained, and the newer name considered as a junior synonym, a process called synonymy . Dividing a taxon into multiple, often new, taxa is called splitting . Taxonomists are often referred to as "lumpers" or "splitters" by their colleagues, depending on their personal approach to recognising differences or commonalities between organisms. The circumscription of taxa, considered
26660-464: The scarcity of the European bison the word 'bison' was most familiar in relation to the American species. By the time of the adoption of 'bison' into Early Modern English, the early medieval English name for the species had long been obsolete: the Old English : wesend had descended from Proto-Germanic : * wisand , * wisund and was related to Old Norse : vísundr . The word 'wisent'
26832-490: The scholars). The closest known event to a single publication date, that is, when the manuscript was probably released to the public for borrowing and copying, and was probably sent to the Flavians, is the date of the Dedication in the first of the 37 books. It is to the imperator Titus. As Titus and Vespasian had the same name, Titus Flavius Vespasianus, earlier writers hypothesized a dedication to Vespasian. Pliny's mention of
27004-471: The service, Nero , the last of the Julio-Claudian dynasty , had been emperor for two years. He did not leave office until AD 68, when Pliny was 45 years old. During that time, Pliny did not hold any high office or work in the service of the state. In the subsequent Flavian dynasty , his services were in such demand that he had to give up his law practice, which suggests that he had been trying not to attract
27176-502: The species concept and making taxonomy unstable. Yet others defend this approach, considering "taxonomic inflation" pejorative and labelling the opposing view as "taxonomic conservatism"; claiming it is politically expedient to split species and recognise smaller populations at the species level, because this means they can more easily be included as endangered in the IUCN red list and can attract conservation legislation and funding. Unlike
27348-415: The tribe Bovini : Y chromosome analysis associated wisent and American bison. An earlier study, using amplified fragment-length polymorphism fingerprinting, showed a close association of wisent and American bison and probably with yak. It noted the interbreeding of Bovini species made determining relationships problematic. European bison can crossbreed with American bison. This hybrid is known in Poland as
27520-508: The various methods of mining appear to be eyewitness judging by the discussion of gold mining methods in his Natural History . He might have visited the mine excavated at Las Médulas . The last position of procurator, an uncertain one, was of Gallia Belgica , based on Pliny's familiarity with it. The capital of the province was Augusta Treverorum ( Trier ), named for the Treveri surrounding it. Pliny says that in "the year but one before this"
27692-408: The wild population in the Białowieża Forest . Compared to 2013, the total population in 2014 increased by 4.1%, while the free-ranging population increased by 6.5%. Bison from Poland have also been transported beyond the country's borders to boost the local populations of other countries, among them Bulgaria, Spain, Romania, Czechia and others. Poland has been described as the world's breeding centre of
27864-459: The wild, including some areas where they were never found wild. Free-ranging herds are currently found in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Latvia, Switzerland, Kyrgyzstan, Germany, and in forest preserves in the Western Caucasus . The Białowieża Primeval Forest, an ancient woodland that straddles the border between Poland and Belarus, continues to have
28036-537: The wild. It is difficult to define a species in a way that applies to all organisms. The debate about species concepts is called the species problem. The problem was recognised even in 1859, when Darwin wrote in On the Origin of Species : I was much struck how entirely vague and arbitrary is the distinction between species and varieties. He went on to write: No one definition has satisfied all naturalists; yet every naturalist knows vaguely what he means when he speaks of
28208-435: The wisent. Some of the authors however support the hypothesis that similarity of wisent and cattle ( Bos ) mitochondrial genomes is result of incomplete lineage sorting during divergence of Bos and Bison from their common ancestors rather than further post- speciation gene flow (ancient hybridisation between Bos and Bison ). But they agree that limited gene flow from Bos primigenius taurus could account for
28380-488: Was The Life of Pomponius Secundus , a two-volume biography of his old commander, Pomponius Secundus. Meanwhile, he was completing his monumental work, Bella Germaniae , the only authority expressly quoted in the first six books of the Annales of Tacitus , and probably one of the principal authorities for the same author's Germania . It disappeared in favor of the writings of Tacitus (which are far shorter), and, early in
28552-457: Was going to Emperor Vespasian (for he also made use of the night), then he did the other duties assigned to him. In this passage, Pliny the Younger conveys to Tacitus that his uncle was ever the academic, always working. The word ibat (imperfect, "he used to go") gives a sense of repeated or customary action. In the subsequent text, he mentions again how most of his uncle's day was spent working, reading, and writing. He notes that Pliny "was indeed
28724-466: Was next. A statement by Pliny the Younger that his uncle was offered 400,000 sesterces for his manuscripts by Larcius Licinius while he (Pliny the Elder) was procurator of Hispania makes it the most certain of the three. Pliny lists the peoples of "Hither Hispania", including population statistics and civic rights (modern Asturias and Gallaecia ). He stops short of mentioning them all for fear of "wearying
28896-401: Was perpetually short of, and was always seeking, officeholders for its numerous offices. Throughout the latter stages of Pliny's life, he maintained good relations with Emperor Vespasian. As is written in the first line of Pliny the Younger's Avunculus Meus : Ante lucem ibat ad Vespasianum imperatorem (nam ille quoque noctibus utebatur), deinde ad officium sibi delegatum . Before dawn he
29068-472: Was sole emperor, but was awarded for a military victory, in this case that in Jerusalem in 70. Aside from minor finishing touches, the work in 37 books was completed in AD 77. That it was written entirely in 77 or that Pliny was finished with it then cannot be proved. Moreover, the dedication could have been written before publication, and it could have been published either privately or publicly earlier without
29240-550: Was the son of an equestrian Gaius Plinius Celer and his wife, Marcella. Neither the younger nor the elder Pliny mention the names. Their ultimate source is a fragmentary inscription ( CIL V 1 3442 ) found in a field in Verona and recorded by the 16th-century Augustinian friar Onofrio Panvinio . The form is an elegy . The most commonly accepted reconstruction is PLINIVS SECVNDVS AVGV. LERI. PATRI. MATRI. MARCELLAE. TESTAMENTO FIERI IVSSO Plinius Secundus augur ordered this to be made as
29412-484: Was then borrowed in the 19th century from modern German : Wisent [ ˈviːzɛnt ], itself related to Old High German : wisunt , wisent , wisint , and to Middle High German : wisant , wisent , wisen , and ultimately, like the Old English name, from Proto-Germanic. The Proto-Germanic root: * wis- , also found in weasel , originally referred to the animal's musk . The word 'zubr' in English
29584-484: Was thus multi-ethnic and the Plinies could have come from anywhere. Whether any conclusions can be drawn from Pliny's preference for Greek words, or Julius Pokorny 's derivation of the name from north Italic as "bald" is a matter of speculative opinion. No record of any ethnic distinctions in Pliny's time is apparent—the population considered themselves to be Roman citizens. Pliny the Elder did not marry and had no children. In his will, he adopted his nephew, which entitled
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