La Brea Tar Pits

This famous fossil field is located in Los Angeles, California. Once used by local Native Americans as a source of tar for waterproofing, the tar pits are now a protected archeological site, as they contain a vast quantity of fossils from the last ice age. Indeed, more than one million prehistoric specimens have already been exhumed from the pits, among them mammoth, mastodon, and saber-toothed cat fossils, and are on display at the Page Museum there. What is a tar pit, and how does it form? Discuss

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