La Brea Tar Pits

Photo by jrsnchzhrs

The La Brea Tar Pits otherwise known as the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits are one of the worlds most famous cluster of tar pits, located in Hancock Park in the center of the huge urban city Los Angeles, California. Asphalt which has been termed tar, which in Spanish is named Brea has seeped up from the ground in this area for nearly tens of thousands of years, forming hundreds of tar pools that have trapped animals and plants which entered the tar pits, only to be sucked into impending doom. Asphalt is a natural fossilizer and over time these plants and animals have been preserved into magnificent fossil specimens. There are thousands of rich fossil collections dating from the last ice age located at the La Brea Tar Pits.

Work on the La Brea Tar Pits started in the early 20th century, in the 1940s and 1950s there was great excitement within the public due to the dramatic mammal fossils recovered. By the early 2000s, attention had shifted to microfossils, to fossilized insects and plants, and even to fossilized pollen grains. These micro fossils help to determine the greater picture of the cooler, moister climate in the Los Angeles area during and after the ice age.

There is currently a George C. Page museum located in Hancock Park, encompassing the La Brea Tar Pits which is a branch of the Natural History Musuem of Los Angeles County. More than a hundred pits are located in the museum and one of them continues to be excavated on a regular basis to flocks of tourists. The parks location in a major urban city, the epic history of fossilized finds, and excellent presentation of the museum all combine to make the La Brea Tar Pits a famous paleontological site.