The La Brea Tar Pits are one of Los Angeles’s most famous natural history sites: an active asphalt seep in Hancock Park where Ice Age animals and plants have been preserved for tens of thousands of years. The site is both a public museum attraction and an ongoing paleontological dig, with millions of fossils recovered and new discoveries still being made.mentalfloss+2
La Brea is not a single “tar pit” but a cluster of natural asphalt seeps in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles. The word brea means pitch or tar in Spanish, and the sticky asphalt has bubbled up from underground for a very long time.wikipedia+1
It is one of the world’s richest Ice Age fossil sites, with more than 3.5 million fossils found and more than 600 species identified. The collection includes saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, mammoths, mastodons, birds, insects, plants, and microfossils that help scientists reconstruct ancient Los Angeles and climate change over time.mentalfloss+2
Animals were likely trapped when they got stuck in the asphalt, and predators or scavengers then came in and got trapped too. That is why the fossil record is especially rich in carnivores, along with prey species and smaller organisms preserved in the sticky sediment.mentalfloss+1
The tar seeps were known long before modern science: the Chumash and Tongva used tar for waterproofing canoes and other purposes. The first written European record dates to 1769, and large-scale scientific excavation began in the early 20th century after fossils were recognized in the asphalt. The site was later developed into the George C. Page Museum, which opened in 1977 and is now known as the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum.discoverlosangeles+2
Visitors can see the bubbling outdoor pits, excavation areas, museum exhibits, and life-size Ice Age animal models. The museum sits at 5801 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. The grounds are described as about 23 acres and include features such as the lake pit and a Pleistocene garden.yelp+2
The site is one of the most distinctive attractions in Los Angeles because it combines a public park, a working excavation, and a museum in one place. It is especially valuable if you like paleontology, natural history, or the history of Los Angeles itself.discoverlosangeles+1
The La Brea Tar Pits are a rare urban Ice Age fossil site in Los Angeles where natural asphalt has preserved a huge prehistoric record and still yields new discoveries today.wikipedia+1