A visit to the La Brea Tar Pits

Two days ago my girl scout troop took an overnight trip to the La Brea Tar Pits. We
camped inside of the George C. Page Museum right next to a Wooly Mammoth!

Setting up our sleeping space next to the Wooly Mammoth

The La Brea Tar Pits are located right in the middle of Los Angeles, surrounded by big buildings
and busy streets. It is a very smelly, but fun place. The smell comes from a gas called methane gas. We saw it bubble up in the tar and it's actually passed by living, oil  eating bacteria.

'La Brea" means 'The Tar' in Spanish, so the name really means: the The tar Tar Pits. :0)

Tar (or Aspalt) is made of oil and has been seeping up from the ground for ten thousands of years. It has trapped thousand of animals. The pits were camouflaged with dust, leaves or water.
Imagine a plant eater looking for food getting trapped in the sticky tar. Calling for help it would attract
hungry predators like saber toothed cats or a pack of dire wolves, who ended up stuck too. Even birds, trying to feed on caucuses could not fly out and died along with the other animals.

All the bones from trapped animals were preserved by the tar and covered up by more dirt and tar. This happened again and again over the years. Over 5 million bones have been found up so far!

Tar pit with bones stuck in rock, surrounded by water and tar

We saw the skeletons of many species in the museum, like dire wolves, mammoths, saber toothed cat, ground sloths and even ancient horses.

Saber toothed cat (above) and
dire wolf skulls (below)

The bone fossils are stuck in a hard, rocky material called 'matrix'.  

Our troop examined and sorted out matrix dust to find micro (small) fossils. We found bone fragments (little splinters), wood and if you were lucky, you found little shell piecees!

Examining and sorting micro fossils

We also put together a sabertooth cat bone puzzle. We looked at a real skeleton to find out where the bones belonged. I had a rib bone to match.

Saber toothed cat rib bone

Matching bones

Our museum sleepover was a blast and I hope that I can come back soon!




Have you ever  been to the La Brea Tar Pits?
If so, what is your favorite thing to look at?