La Brea Tar Pits
Prehistoric asphalt graveyard
La Brea Tar Pits are natural asphalt seeps in Los Angeles where crude oil has bubbled to the surface for tens of thousands of years.
The sticky tar trapped animals—mammoths, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves—preserving their bones in extraordinary numbers.
The site remains an active excavation and museum: We took the kids to see the La Brea Tar Pits.
- tar pitNatural bitumen pool
- fossilsPreserved ancient organism traces
- tarFile bundling utility
- natural asphaltNaturally occurring tar substance
- mammothsExtinct woolly elephants
saber-toothed · saber-toothed cat · bones · excavation · fossil dig · prehistoric · asphalt · sticky · bubbling · Los Angeles · trapped · skeleton · dire wolves · Ice Age · paleontology · oozing · ancient · extinction
- Los AngelesHollywood, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Malibu, Venice Beach
- California AttractionsSan Diego Zoo, Getty Museum, LACMA, Griffith Observatory, Hearst Castle
- prehistoric sitesStonehenge, Lascaux, Carnac, Altamira, Cro-Magnon
- fossil sitesdig site, excavation, quarry, dig, dig sites
- HollywoodHollywood, Tinseltown, Hollywood Sign, silver screen, movie stars
- fossilsdinosaur bones, ammonite, amber, ammonites, fossils
La Brea Tar PitsSmithsonian Institution
Federal museum complex, Washington
Natural History Museum · museum · curated collection · natural history museum · archaeological excavation