Paleogenomes Reveal a Complex Evolutionary History of Late Pleistocene Bison in Northeastern China

Steppe bison are a typical representative of the Mid-Late Pleistocene steppes of the northern hemisphere. Despite the abundance of fossil remains, many questions related to their genetic diversity, population structure and dispersal route are still elusive. Here, we present both near-complete and partial mitochondrial genomes, as well as a partial nuclear genome from fossil bison samples excavated from Late Pleistocene strata in northeastern China. Maximum-likelihood and Bayesian trees both suggest the bison clade are divided into three maternal haplogroups (A, B and C), and Chinese individuals fall in two of them. Bayesian analysis shows that the split between haplogroup C and the ancestor of haplogroups A and B dates at 326 ky BP (95% HPD: 397-264 ky BP). In addition, our nuclear phylogenomic tree also supports a basal position for the individual carrying haplogroup C. Admixture analyses suggest that CADG467 (haplogroup C) has a similar genetic structure to steppe bison from Siberia (haplogroup B). Our new findings indicate that the genetic diversity of Pleistocene bison was probably even higher than previously thought and that northeastern Chinese populations of several mammalian species, including Pleistocene bison, were genetically distinct.