Not exactly new, although it is to me. What a fascinating discovery from the field of animal archaeogenetics! The wisent, or European Bison, is not actually a "natural" species, or rather, it's probably naturally occurring but not what we'd normally consider to be a species; it's a hybrid between two extinct animals, the aurochs and the steppe bison. The latter went extinct, presumably during the Pleistocene extinction event, while the former lasted until the Middle Ages, and is the ancestor of modern taurine domesticated cattle.
That does raise an interesting question; does the wisent actually belong in a rewilding type project? Or would a rewilder be better off trying to back breed an aurochs like phenotype (like Heck cattle) and then maybe start trying to back breed (or clone) extinct bison types? There are three extinct bison that I know of; priscus, latifrons and antiquus. While I'd most like to see latifrons, mostly just because it's so freakin' huge and impressive looking, I have to admit that antiquus would probably be the more "useful" of the bunch, as well as the most recoverable. And in a pinch, it could "stand in" for priscus in a rewilded Eurasia anyway.
UPDATE: There's also occidentalis, although that seems to have been a small population and a genetic dead end.
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