Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison

Jonas Oppenheimer; Joshua D. Kapp; Molly Cassatt‐Johnstone; Samuel Sacco; William Seligmann; Holland C. Conwell; Sarah M. Ford; Cassandra Gunn; Lael D. Barlow; Amy Phillips; Kenneth P. Cannon; Lawrence C. Todd; Spencer R. Pelton; Glen MacKay; Kyle Forsythe; Mark A. Edwards; Mark Ball; David R.W. Bruinsma; Jessica Z. Metcalfe; John W. Ives; Robert J. Losey; Tatiana Nomokonova; Tomasin Playford; Chris Widga; Craig M. Lee; Karsten Heuer; Wes Olson; Paul Stothard; John R. Southon; Donalee Marie Deck

doi:10.1126/science.aee4205

Evolutionary BiologyScienceAug 6, 2026

Peer-reviewed journal article

Paleogenomic insight into the collapse, recovery, and management of American bison

Jonas Oppenheimer iD, Joshua D. Kapp iD, Molly Cassatt‐Johnstone iD, Samuel Sacco iD, William Seligmann iD, Holland C. Conwell iD, Sarah M. Ford iD, Cassandra Gunn, Lael D. Barlow iD, Amy Phillips iD, Kenneth P. Cannon iD, Lawrence C. Todd iD, Spencer R. Pelton iD, Glen MacKay, Kyle Forsythe iD, Mark A. Edwards iD, Mark Ball iD, David R.W. Bruinsma, Jessica Z. Metcalfe iD, John W. Ives iD, Robert J. Losey iD, Tatiana Nomokonova iD, Tomasin Playford, Chris Widga iD, Craig M. Lee iD, , Beth Shapiro iD

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Abstract

American bison were pushed to the brink of extinction by the 20th century. This bottleneck and the fragmented nature of remnant populations pose challenges to their resilience, as does human-facilitated admixture between bison subspecies and with cattle. To contextualize current diversity, we sequenced 115 ancient and 45 modern bison genomes from across North America dating back within the last [~]20,000 years. Past bison populations were highly connected, in contrast to structured modern herds. Modern wood bison carry plains bison ancestry from 1920s translocations, while many bison lack cattle ancestry that has previously been believed to be ubiquitous. Our findings reveal the legacy of human impacts on bison in the context of modern conservation and highlight the applicability of ancient DNA for guiding wildlife restoration.