Unlike modern water buffalo, but similar to extinct Chinese Pleistocene species of Bubalus like Bubalus wansjocki, the horn cores have a triangular rather than rounded cross section, with the upper surface of the horn cores typically forming a flat plain that is continuous with the skull surface.

[3] Previously, the latest finds of Bubalus murrensis were dated to the last interglacial (known as MIS 5 or Eemian) of Central Europe, and it was therefore assumed to have become extinct sometime during the subsequent last Ice Age, similar to other representatives of the interglacial Palaeoloxodon fauna (such as the straight-tusked elephant, Merck's rhinoceros, the narrow-nosed rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus) and the hippopotamus).

In 2020, a well preserved skull was described from the East European Plain near Kolomna in Moscow Oblast, Russia, attesting to its presence in this region around 12,761 years Before Present.

This is over 100,000 years after the next youngest record of the species and moves its suggested date of extinction to the Bølling–Allerød interstadial or younger, around the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary.

A relief from the Fourneau du Diable, Bourdeilles, Dordogne, France, has been interpreted by some authors as a depiction of water buffalo due to the combination of backward-facing horns, a pronounced dewlap and a characteristic dorsal line and dated to around 16,000 years Before Present.