Les grands bovidés de l'Igue du Gral (Sauliac-sur-Célé, Lot, France) et les bisons de la fin du Pléistocène

The large Bovids of Igue du Gral (Sauliac-sur-Célé, Lot, France) and the bisons of the Late Pleistocene.- The palaeontological site of Gral (Lot) yields a fossil bison series dated to the end of the late Pleistocene (between ca. 32 and 10 thousand years BP) from several levels or sets. The origin of the accumulations in this context of site (pitfall or ‘igue’) is natural, and many anatomical elements were found mostly complete. The study of the spatial distribution, the condition of the material, the paleobiological structure (in sex and age) and the quantification (NRD, NMIc), the morphometric characteristics (teeth and metapodials) make it possible to precise the dynamics of the populations evolving on this part of the Causse (limestone plateau) as well as the taxonomic nature of these large Bovids, attributed to the Bison genus, closed to the steppe bison B. priscus. Although, palaeogenetic analysis (Massilani et al., 2016) indicates the presence at the top of the deposit of a form similar to the current European bison B. bonasus, it was not possible here to differentiate morphologically. This raises an interesting problem of recognizing the ancient bison forms present at the end of the Pleistocene in Europe which is discussed through a wide comparative analysis, especially on female metacarpals of several fossil and modern populations.