La Brea Tar Pits

La Brea Tar Pits is a natural asphalt deposit in Los Angeles where seepage has trapped and preserved abundant fossils, especially from the late Pleistocene.

Petroleum seep: A natural surface outlet where petroleum or related hydrocarbons escape from underground reservoirs. The pits formed where petroleum seeped upward and lost lighter components, leaving sticky asphalt.
Saber-toothed cat: A large extinct cat, Smilodon fatalis, known for its elongated upper canine teeth. Its abundant remains make it one of the site’s best-known predators.
Hancock Park: A public park in Los Angeles that contains the La Brea Tar Pits and the George C. Page Museum. The pits occupy this urban park, where asphalt seeps remain visible.
Pleistocene: The geological epoch from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, marked by repeated glacial cycles. Most famous La Brea fossils date from this epoch’s late stages.
Paleoclimate reconstruction: The use of geological and biological evidence to infer past climate conditions. La Brea sediments and fossils can track environmental shifts across the late Pleistocene.
Asphalt: A viscous or solid mixture of hydrocarbons that can occur naturally or be produced from petroleum. The sticky natural asphalt trapped animals and accumulated their remains.
Dire wolf: An extinct North American canid, Aenocyon dirus, that lived during the Pleistocene. Thousands of dire wolf fossils document a major predator in the asphalt assemblage.
Rancho La Brea: A Mexican-era land grant in present-day Los Angeles whose name means “the tar ranch.” The fossil site takes its name from this historic rancho.
Late Pleistocene extinctions: The widespread disappearance of large animal species near the end of the Pleistocene. La Brea specimens help investigate which species vanished and when.
Quaternary extinction event: The widespread extinction of large terrestrial animals during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. The site offers evidence for evaluating proposed causes of megafaunal loss.

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