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Geological heritage site
- For those who don’t know, the La Brea Tar Pits are an internationally recognized geological heritage site, located in the middle of Los Angeles. The site is known for its many fossil quarries (referred to as “pits”) where animals, plants and insects have gotten stuck and preserved in asphalt over the last 50,000 years.
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The La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years.
- Not Tar... Asphalt. Asphalt bubbling up from below ground at the La Brea Tar Pits pond. Los Angeles Almanac Photo. To be clear: the La Brea Tar Pits are not actually composed of tar at all.
- Only A Few Inches Deep. Smilodon californicus (Saber-Tooth Cat) and Canis dirus (Dire Wolf) fight over a Mammuthus columbi (Columbian Mammoth) carcass in the La Brea Tar Pits.
- Asphalt is an Amazing Preservative. La Brea Tar Pits lab worker cleans asphalt from a 40,000-year-old bison bone. Los Angeles Almanac Photo. Asphalt is not easily removed from fossil remains, as La Brea Tar Pits paleontologists can tell you, but skeletal remains encased in it are kept in pristine condition.
- No Dinosaur Fossils... Ice Age Fossils. Mural portraying Ice Age Los Angeles at La Brea Tar Pits & Museum. Los Angeles Almanac Photo. Fossils found in the La Brea Tar Pits only date from the very end of the Pleistocene epoch (also known as the Ice Ages), from 11,700 to 50,000 years ago, which still falls within our current Cenozoic Era.
Located in the heart of L.A., La Brea Tar Pits are one of the world’s most famous fossil localities, where more than 100 excavations have been made! It’s a fascinating piece of land. Over time, this area has been ancient forest and savannah, ranch land and oilfield, Mexican land grant, and Los Angeles County Park.
The tar in the pits, which is more correctly referred to as asphalt, is what's left over after the lighter components of petroleum evaporate away. Incredibly sticky, especially in warm weather, the asphalt has the adhesive power to entrap even large animals.
- Jessika Toothman
- What has been found in the La Brea Tar Pits?As of the last count of the La Brea collection at the National History Museum of Los Angeles County, more than 3.5 million specimens have been foun...
- How old are the La Brea Tar Pits?Serious scientific excavations didn't commence at the La Brea Tar Pits until the beginning of the 20th century. However, the history of the tar pit...
- How did the La Brea Tar Pits form?The Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley says "[t]ar pits form when crude oil seeps to the surface through fissures in...
- How old are the fossils in the La Brea Tar Pits?The fossils found in the La Brea Tar Pits are between 11,000 and 50,000 years old.
- What animals have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits?The animal fossils that have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits include saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and mammoths, among others.
Apr 28, 2024 · La Brea Tar Pits, tar (Spanish brea) pits, in Hancock Park (Rancho La Brea), Los Angeles, California, U.S. The area was the site of “pitch springs” oozing crude oil that was used by local Indians for waterproofing.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
NHMNatural History Museum. Tar PitsLa Brea Tar Pits. HartWilliam S. Hart Museum. We are open today from 9:30 am to 5 pm. La Brea Tar Pits. Pause Video. Start planning your visit. Special Experiences. Explore the sites, collections, and programs that bring the Ice Age to life.
Jun 23, 2017 · 1. MORE THAN 3.5 MILLION FOSSILS HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED. The tar pits have yielded one of the biggest collections of Ice Age fossils in the world, and collectively, the statistics are stunning. More...
