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Tar pits, sometimes referred to as asphalt pits, are large asphalt deposits. They form in the presence of petroleum, which is created when decayed organic matter is subjected to pressure underground. If this crude oil seeps upward via fractures, conduits, or porous sedimentary rock layers, it may pool up at the surface. [1]
La Brea Tar Pits is an active paleontological research site in urban Los Angeles. Hancock Park was formed around a group of tar pits where natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, or pitch; brea in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground for tens of thousands of years.
Asphaltic deposits or "tar pits" present a unique opportunity to study past ecosystems because they preserve many different kinds of fossils (and lots of them!). Tar pits are especially important for scientists in areas where fossils don't normally preserve well, such as the Neotropics.
This is a list of notable tar pits throughout the world. Tar pits, which are often covered with dust and leaves, can trap animals that step into them. Over time, the skeletons of such animals become preserved as fossils. Some of the largest deposits of fossils exist within tar pits.
At the site known today as the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, natural asphalt has bubbled up from below the ground's surface since the last Ice Age. This murky sludge has trapped and made...
What are the Tar Pits? The Tar Pits have fascinated scientists and visitors for over a century, and today, this area is the only actively excavated Ice Age fossil site found in an urban location in the world!
The Tar Pits provide an incredibly complete record of the different plants and animals that have lived in the L.A. Basin between 50,000 years ago and today. We research and exhibit huge, extinct mammals such as saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, and mammoths, as well as “microfossils”—the tiny remains of plants and animals that can give us ...