New Research on La Brea Tar Pit Fossils Shows Climate Change Drove Evolution of Ice Age Predators
Concerns about climate change and its impact on the world around us are growing daily. New scientific studies at the La Brea Tar Pits are probing the link between climate warming and the evolution of Ice Age predators, attempting to predict how animals will respond to climate change today. The La Brea Tar Pits are famous for the amazing array of Ice Age fossils found there, such as ground sloths, mammoths, and predators like saber-toothed cats and powerful dire wolves. But the climate during the end of the Ice Age (50,000-11,000 years ago) was unstable, with rapid warming and cooling. New research reported here has documented the impact of this climate change on La Brea predators for the first time. Read more (PDF)
Scientists are studying a huge cache of Ice Age fossil deposits recovered near the famous La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of the nation's second-largest city. Among the finds is a near-intact mammoth skeleton, a skull of an American lion and bones of sabre-toothed cats, dire wolves, bison, horses, ground sloths and other mammals.