Tar Pit Fanatic

A place to show love for the Pleistocene, natural history, paleontology, and the remarkable La Brea Tar Pits! 

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Trapped in tar: The Ice Age animals of Rancho La Brea

The La Brea tar pits preserve an Ice Age eden beyond the grip of the huge glaciers that leveled North America.

Image credit: @paleoart

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Spring is here at the Pleistocene Garden! Just a few of the early flowers from a couple weeks ago. Still have all these plants blooming, but now we’ve got the sages blooming as well.

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A new asphalt seep!

I noticed this one in the corner of the Pleistocene Garden a couple of months ago. Asphalt seeps are not static- they can pop up in new places, and production waxes and wanes. This one’s been fairly quiet, but it does make tar bubbles on occasion.

A tar seep in the Arroyo Willows about 10 feet away from this lil’ one was very active this summer and fall- it flowed downslope and covered a couple square feet in a couple of inches of squishy leaf mulch and tar. Easier to see how a ground sloth could stumble into one after nearly sinking while weeding!

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Oil Creek in fine form yesterday!