Things to do in Los Angeles - La Brea Tar Pits

This former Mexican land grant is at present recognized as world’s richest deposit of Ice Age fossils. The word “la brea” stands for tar or asphalt in Spanish and is a place that 40,000 years ago  entrapped dire wolves, saber-toothed or mammoths  wandering through the region. Predators would also enter to eat the trapped animals, and themselves become stuck. The captured bones of 60 identified species were well preserved in the natural asphalt. Also they found  seventeen human bones, including a skull and a pelvis, as well as a number of artifacts such as milling stones and bone hairpins. Thanks to  the George C. Page museum visitors can experience the exact specimens from the tar.  Nowadays, it is frequently covered with water, which attracts wildlife.  During the summer months, visitors can observe the ongoing excavation from Pit 91. Apart from the dramatic fossils of large mammals, the place additionally preserves tiny “microfossils,” like insects, wood and plant remnants, or pollen grains. If fact, La Brea seeps because of its character are still ensnaring organisms even today.