RESEARCH· ·1970·

B138
PALEONTOLOGY
core are m1ssmg, so the original lower curve length
must have been 1,007 mm or more. Thus, B. ( Gigantobison)
latif1'0ns horn cores (measurement 4, minimmn
800 mm, average 934 mm, maximum 1,156 mm; measurement
5, minimum 680 mm, average 810 mm, maximum
1,020 mm), alone of all known species of Bison,
reach the size of the Canon City specimen, which I
refer without question to Harlan's species.
Through the good offices of Curator \Vood and Secretary-Treasurer
G. D. Custer, the Board of the Canon
City Museum Association decided unanimously to present
this important specimen to the U.S. Geological
Survey for· deposit in the U.S. National Museum,
Smithsonian Institution, where it \Yas assigned Catalogue
No. 25912. Both organizfLtions rure very grateful
for this gift. It has been given U.S. Geological Survey/
P&S/ Denver/ fossil vertebrate locality No. D720,
and is illustrated in figure lA.
The geologic age of B. (G.) latif1·ons is a moot question.
When the Canon City specimen was first found,
G. R. Scott thought the gravels containing it could be
of either Illinoian or Kansan age, but he and R. M .
Lindvall (ScottandLindv,all, 1970) (p. B144, this chapter)
l1aYe concluded, after long·and careful study, that
the gravels and the present specimen of B . (G.) lati­
/1'0ns are of Sangamon age. The extreme points of view
in the past have been those of Schultz and Frankforter
(1946, p. 4), who assigned a late Kansan or early Yarmouth
age, and that of Miller (1968, p. 4.), who assigned
a late Wisconsin age to B. (G.) latif1'0ns. Skinner
and Kaisen (1947, p. 155-203) gave the age as
"middle Pleistocene."
BISON (SIMOBISONl? ALLENI? (Marsh), 1877
On August 15, 1966, M. G. Gienau, of Denver, gave
the U .S. Geological Survey a fragment of another giant
bison horn core, for deposit in the U.S. National Museum,
Smithsonian Institution, where it was assigned
Catalogue No. 25913. It has been given U.S. Geological
Survey/P&SjDenver/ fossil vectebrrute locality No.
D707, and is illustrated in figure lB. Thanks ar.e due
Mr. Gienau for the gift of this specimen, which he
FIGURE 1.-Two f ragments of horn cores of P leistocene Bison. Meter stick, numbered in centimeters,
included for scale which is about oce-fifth natural size.
A, specimen identified as B . (Gigantobison) latif?·ons, U.S. Xational Museum ~o. 25912.
B, specimen questionably referred to B. (Simob·ison) 'I alleni?, U.S. National Museum Xo.
25913.