Ancient European and steppe bison mitochondrial diversity

European bison (Bison bonasus) are one of the few European megafaunal species to survive the Late Pleistocene mass megafaunal extinction. Current conservation management efforts have proceeded in the absence of information about their evolutionary history, which has been obscured by recent severe population bottlenecks. Here, we present mitochondrial genome sequences from 75 ancient bison samples spanning >50 thousand years (>50 ka) across the Eurasian continent spanning three phylogenetic groups: two distinct clades of European bison (Bison bonasus) Bb1 and Bb2, and steppe bison (Bison priscus).