Bubalus mephistopheles, also known as the short-horned water buffalo, is an extinct species of bovine that lived in China during the Pleistocene and Holocene.

Although no direct radiometric dates are available, this species is present in a series of well-dated Neolithic and Bronze Age zooarchaeological deposits across southern, central and eastern China (from Yunnan to northern Henan).

In 2004, fossils of the short-horned water buffalo from several Neolithic assemblages in China were compared with remains of domestic buffalo/cattle from Dholavira, an urban site of the Harappan civilization in South Asia dated to between 2600 - 1900 BC.

In contrast, the three Neolithic assemblages from China all had large proportions of very young calves and some very old individuals, which most likely represents a pattern of hunting wild populations.

But a comparison from four different sites dated to 6000 - 1200 BC showed no reduction of body size in the B. mephistopheles populations during this period.