Higgs bison

• Higgs Bison, Higgs-Bison

Blend of Higgs boson +‎ bison. From being elusive, not being found after a long search, akin to how the Higgs boson proved time-consuming to find. Higgs was chosen due to the similarity between boson and bison, and its characteristic mysteriousness, due to not being found.[1][2]

Higgs bison (plural Higgs bison)

1. (informal, paleontology, biology) The ancestor of the European bison (Bison bonasus), a species originating from the hybridization of the aurochs (Bos primigenius) and the steppe bison (Bison priscus).
   • 2016 October 19, Robby Berman, “Scientists Identify the Elusive Higgs Bison”, in Big Think‎, archived from the original on 2022-10-05:

     Scientists believe the Higgs bison were offspring of steppe bison and aurochs, an extinct breed of cattle.

   • 2016 October 19, Jason Daley, “Cave Paintings Help Unravel the Mystery of the ‘Higgs Bison’”, in Smithsonian Magazine‎:

     But now, cave art and further DNA testing have finally unraveled the origins of Higgs Bison, which turns out to be a previously undescribed hybrid animal. The research appears in the journal Nature Communications.

   • [2023, Christopher J. Preston, Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals, MIT Press, →ISBN, page 86:

     The discovery of a missing hybrid ancestor—nicknamed the Higgs-Bison after the Higgs-Boson, a particle posited by theoretical physicists before it was proven to exist—confirmed this cross-breeding had occurred.]