[3] In comparison to B. priscus, B. schoetensacki was either smaller or similar in size but with slenderer leg bones and metapodials, and had shorter and differently shaped horns.

Instead, dental mesowear of the species shows similar pattern to that of extant European bison, a grazer.

[5] Fossils have been obtained from Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Moldova, Russia, Spain,[2][6] and mass excavations from the Paleolithic site of Isernia in Italy, dating back to around 700,000 years ago, indicate B. schoetensacki was the most heavily targeted animal by human hunters,[7] as European bison likely didn't inhabit the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas.

[1] A 2017 study which attributed Late Pleistocene European remains to B. schoetensacki found it to belong to a mitochondrial clade which is the sister group to modern wisent, and proposed the species as a whole is likely ancestral to modern wisent.

[8][2] However, other studies have disputed this attribution, restricting B. schoetensacki to Early and Middle Pleistocene remains.