The bison, like many species, have come a long way since the dawn of time. Bison grew up alongside humans, and humans took advantage of bison to the point of near extinction. Now the bison are struggling to survive, but fortunately they are still around today, but not in all the places they used to be. The history of bison dates back to when the species was still young on earth. To begin with, bison came from the cattle family. It is a genetic family that mainly includes animals that resemble the common cow or have cow-like characteristics, including horns, hooves, rough skin, etc. According to Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear, both Kansas and Wyoming state archaeologists, believe that "bison and cattle have a common ancestry beginning about nine million years ago in Europe with the appearance of an animal called Parabos". The parabos belonged to the bovine family. The place of origin of this animal is unclear, but some fossils located in Spain, Hungary, Italy and Romania may provide a more precise indication of its origin. I think this makes sense because scientifically it is said that animals came from water and evolved. Those countries are close to water, which may also explain how the water buffalo may have begun to evolve. Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear continue on the parabos interest by saying that approximately four million years ago, parabos "...gave rise to the proleptobos, an animal that is the direct ancestor of Bos and Bison." This provides more information about bison and shows that they probably originated in China. On the other hand, parabos have probably spread as far as the Chinese area. From Proleptobos, bison separated from that animal about 2 million years ago. He wandered throughout Europe and Asia, among the paper. BBC, “Danish island of Bornholm receives rare bison from Poland” BBC.com. 7 June 2012. BBC. Network. March 30, 2014. Gear, Kathleen O'Neal and Gear, W. Michael. "A Brief Look at the Evolution of the Bison" Lindnerbison. August 2010. Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear. Network. March 30, 2014.Kuemmerle, Tobias. “Predicting the potential habitat of the European bison in its former range” Ecological applications. April 2011 vol. 21. page. 830-835. JSTOR. Network. March 30, 2014Pucek, Zdzislaw. European bison (Bison Bonasus): current status of the species and strategy for its conservation. Strasbourg. Council of Europe. 2004. Print.