La Brea Tar Pits

I thought a little education might be good for us on our vacation. Actually, my girls really love this kind of thing. La Brea Tar Pits are naturally occurring pools of tar. Scientists have found bones of ancient animals and people preserved in the tar pits. It was pretty interesting to see the all the bones they've discovered there like, Sloths, Saber-Tooth Cats and Mastodons. Apparently what happened is an animal such as a Mastodon would get stuck in the tar and become an easy target to prey upon. However, whatever animal thought it would be a good idea to feast on the Mastodon would also get stuck, then they became the prey and so on and so forth. They've discovered almost entire food chains through this process.


A Mastodon skeleton.

These are hundreds of wolf skulls that have been recovered from the tar pits.

Examining the laboratory where they clean all the bones.

An actual tar pit. Those aren't real Mastodons (of course) but if they were they would be stuck.