How Old Is a Fossils? | How to Collect Fossils | Fossils Main Page | Digging | Search The Web!

The Tar Pits

The La Brea tar pits in Los Angela’s are the site that some of the greatest specimens of Pleistocene mammals have been found. In the Pleistocene epoch, oil seeped up from the ground. The light part of the oil disappeared, leaving behind a sticky tar, that eventually hardened into asphalt. Between those the time it was formed and the time it hardened, however, thousands of mammals met their deaths in the sticky tar.

In fact, 660 species of mammals have been identified. Thousands of Smilodon bones have been found there, as well as many grey wolves, to name a few. The remains found in the ancient tar pits consist of over 90% carnivores. This is because whole packs of carnivores would chase one herbivore into the sticky tar, and they would all get stuck. Nearby carnivores would also try to lay their teeth the trapped herbivores, but they would just get stuck also. However, a horrible thing like this would only would only have to happen once every 10 years to fill the tar pits with their present day number of bones.

The tar pits caused much pain and suffering millions of years ago, but today, they are a dream for scientists, because we now know more than ever about prehistoric mammals.