Bison antiquus Leidy, 1852 was one of the largest and most widely distributed megafaunal species during the Late Pleistocene in North America, giving rise to the modern plains bison in the middle Holocene. Despite the importance of the ancient bison, little is known about its feeding ecology. We employed a combination of extended mesowear, and mesowear III to infer the dietary preference and habitat use of three Mexican samples of B. antiquus. These included two northern samples—La Piedad-Santa Ana and La Cinta-Portalitos—from the Transmexican Volcanic Belt morphotectonic Province, as well as one southern sample—Viko Vijin—from the Sierra Madre del Sur morphotectonic province. We found that the northern Mexican samples were primarily nonstrict grazers, whereas the southern sample displays a pattern consistent with mixed feeding habits. This suggests variability among the diets of the bison from these samples, caused by different paleoenvironments. This evidence complements the paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the studied localities; for the northern samples, open prairies composed of patches of woodland or shrubland and, for the southern locality, a fluvial floodplain with short-lived vegetation. In both scenarios, grasses (Poaceae) were nondominant. The dietary habits of our samples of ancient bison in Mexico are the southernmost dietary inference for the species in North America and expand our knowledge of the dietary habits of B. antiquus during the Late Pleistocene.

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We report the southernmost record of Bison latifrons in North America. This is the first record for the species in Oaxaca (Mexico), and for the Transmexican Volcanic Belt morphotectonic province; the known geographic distribution range of Bison latifrons is extended in more than 447 km, from Tequixquiac in the State of Mexico to central Oaxaca. This finding comes from a new fossiliferous locality at the municipality of San Dionisio Ocotepec, located in the Central Valleys region of the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. The associated fauna includes: Mammuthus columbi, Equus cf. E. conversidens, and Bison sp. By the presence of bison as well as mammoth, a Rancholabrean land mammal age (Late Pleistocene) is assigned to the fossil fauna. In addition, we performed a proboscidean mesowear analysis as well as a low magnification microwear analysis (35x) to the dental elements of the mammoth. Our findings suggest that the mammoth individual was a grazer. Due to the mammoth's feeding habits and the habitat described for Mexican samples of bison and horses, we concluded that during the Late Pleistocene, San Dionisio Ocotepec was dominated by open grassland in the lowlands. This new fossil site and its fauna contribute to improve the knowledge of the Rancholabrean in southern Mexico, and particularly in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca. This improves our understanding of the biotic and climatic changes during the foundation of the Holocene.

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