Page Museum at La Brea Tar Pits

Cory the Clown visits the tar pits and discovers the bones of saber toothed cats and ten-foot sloths that roamed California years ago.

The fossils recovered at the La Brea Tar Pits total more than six hundred species, all from the later part of the Ice Age, 10,000 to 40,000 years ago. There were actually saber tooth cats, lions, camels, and giant sloths roaming America! What is interesting are the subtle differences that were found in the bones of a single species. You can actually see slight evolutionary differences with the dire wolves that were found from different periods of time.

The tar pits come from compressed plankton, which lived 5- to 25-million years ago (a long time!) Time and pressure converted these materials into oil. Cory the Clown is in front of a tar pit covered with water. Notice the circles bubbling in the water. They are gas bubbles that come up from the ground through the water. This is methane, a flammable gas. It is the same gas that is used for household products.

If you would like to know more about the La Brea Tar Pits, call (213) 763-3515.

(Unknown if this number still works, avoid calling unknown numbers.)