Bubalus mephistopheles Hopwood, 1925
Short-horned water buffalo
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonyms: Bubalus wansijocki Boule & Chardin, 1928; Bubalus wansjocki Boule & Chardin, 1928; Bubalus wangsjoki Boule & Chardin, 1928; Buballus wansjocki Boule & Chardin, 1928 [orth. error used by (Dong et al., 1999:130)]
Liu et. al. (2004) showed that the Short-horned water buffalo was most probably a truly wild species of buffalo which became extinct some time after 1200 BC, as opposed to it being a domesticated form of buffalo as it had previously been considered to be. B. wansijocki is a junior synonym of B. mephistopheles (Liang et al., 2026).
Conservation Status
Extinct (Liang et al., 2026)
Last record: c.1200 BC (Liu et. al., 2004); mid-Holocene (Liang et al., 2026)
Distribution & Habitat
China
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Hopwood, A. T. (1925). A new species of buffalo from the Pleistocene of China. Annals and Magazine of Natural History Ser. 9, 16(92): 238-239.
Other references:
Brunson, Katherine et al. (2016). New insights into the origins of oracle bone divination: Ancient DNA from Late Neolithic Chinese bovines. Journal of Archaeological Science 74: 35-44. [Abstract]
Dong, W. and Xu, Q. Q. (1996). Succession of Quaternary large herbivore faunas in Northeast China and its relationship with paleoclimate. Vertebr. Palasiat. 34: 13.
Dong, Wei, Xu, Qinqi, Jin, Changzhu and Liu, Jinyi. (1999). Quaternary herbivore fauna in northeastern China: Evolution under climatic change. Chinese Science Bulletin 44(Suppl.): 129-132.
Dong, Wei and Zhang, Yingqi. (2022). Biochronologic sequences of the Pleistocene mammalian faunas in China and correlations with numeric dating. Quaternary Sciences 42(5): 1227-1246. https://doi.org/10.11928/j.issn.1001-7410.2022.05.01
Gao, C. L. (2000). Pleistocene mammals of the Dalian region. Liaoning Geol. 17: 5.
Heilongjiang Provincial Cultural Relics Committee and Harbin Cultural Bureau. (1987). Late Paleolithic Camp Site at Yanjiagang. Cultural Relics Press.
Hu, S. M., Liu, L., Yin, S. P. and Chen, X. (2007). Recent buffalo remains unearthed in Shaanxi and the evolution of native buffalo in China. Huaxia Archaeol 3: 11.
Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology, Higher Vertebrate Group. (1959). Fossil Mammals of the Quaternary in Northeast China. Science Press.
Ji, Hongxiang. (1987). The geographical distribution and dividing of Quaternary mammalian fauna in China. Journal of Stratigraphy 11(2): 91-102. (in Chinese with English abstract)
Jia, L. P., Gai, P. and You, Y. G. (1972). Excavation report of the Shiyu Paleolithic site in Shanxi. Acta Archaeol. Sin. 1: 39-58.
Jiang, H. T., Zhao, K. L., Wang, Y., Zhou, X. Y., Li, X. Q., Ding, J. Y. and Yang, S. (2019). Environmental context of the Late Pleistocene Mammuthus-Coelodonta Fauna in Qinggang area, Heilongjiang Province. Acta Anthropol. Sin. 38: 148-156.
Lemoine, Rhys Taylor, Buitenwerf, Robert, Faurby, Sören and Svenning, Jens-Christian. (2025). Phylogenetic Evidence Supports the Effect of Traits on Late-Quaternary Megafauna Extinction in the Context of Human Activity. Global Ecology and Biogeography 34(7): e70078. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.70078 [Supporting Information: Data S1]
Li Liu, Xingcan Chen and Leping Jiang. (2004). A study of Neolithic water buffalo remains from Zhejiang, China. Indo-pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 24(2): 113-120.
Liang, Xue-Yuan et al. (2026). Ancient mitogenomes reveal the genetic relationship among extinct and extant water buffaloes. iScience 29(7): 116354. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2026.116354
Ma, J., Wang, Y., Baryshnikov, G. F., Drucker, D. G., McGrath, K., Zhang, H., Bocherens, H. and Hu, Y. (2021). The Mammuthus-Coelodonta Faunal Complex at its southeastern limit: A biogeochemical paleoecology investigation in Northeast Asia. Quat. Int. 591: 93-106.
Teilhard de Chardin, P. and Young, C. C. (1936). On the mammalian remains from the archaeological site of Anyang. Palaeontologica Sinica Series C, 12: 1-78.
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009a). In the shadow of the megafauna: prehistoric mammal and bird extinctions across the Holocene, pp. 17-39. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. New York: Oxford University Press.
Turvey, Samuel T. (2009b). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.
Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]
Turvey, S. T., Tong, H., Stuart, A. J. and Lister, A. M. (2013). Holocene survival of late Pleistocene megafauna in China: a critical review of the evidence. Quaternary Science Reviews 76: 156-166.
Wang, J. and Zhang, J. Z. (2011). Preliminary study on the domestic/wild attributes of Bubalus mephistopheles. South Cult. Relics 3: 134-139.
Yang, D. Y., Liu, L., Chen, X. and Speller, C. F. (2008). Wild or domesticated: DNA analysis of ancient water buffalo remains from north China. Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 2778-2785.
YOU Yue, YUAN Guangkuo, LIU Chaoyan, CUI Zongliang, CHEN Xianglong, LIANG Meng, ZANG Shuo, LIU Tianyang, WANG Kaidi. (2022). The appearance and utilization of cattle in the ancient Heji area: A zooarchaeological case study from the Mazhuang site, Puyang City, Henan. Quaternary Sciences 42(4): 1108-1117. https://doi.org/10.11928/j.issn.1001-7410.2022.04.14
Zhang, Minghua. (1981). Luojiajiao dongwuqun [Faunal assemblage from Luojiajiao], pp. 43-53. In: Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology (ed.), Zhejiangsheng Wenwu Kaogusuo Xuekan. Beijing: Wenwu Press. (in Chinese)
Zhou, M. Z. and Xu, Y. X. (1957). A new species of buffalo fossil from Mengxian, Henan. Acta Palaeontol. Sin. 5: 109-118.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/7747/bubalus-mephistopheles-short-horned-buffalo
<< Back to the Cetartiodactyla (Even-toed Ungulates) database