"The La Brea Tar Pits have fascinated visitors ever since Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portolá chronicled the site in 1769.
The oil for the tar comes from the Salt Lake oil field, about 1,000 feet below the park. Since oil is more buoyant than groundwater, it rises to the surface along fractures and faults near the crest of the oil field and then degrades over time. Bacterial action and surface evaporation remove the lightest components to leave a thick, sticky tar behind.
Tar-covered animal bones found in the nearly 100 pits include those from mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, sloths, camels, horses, smaller animals, insects, and even birds. Remains of plants and pollen have also been found. Overall, the bones come
The conventional story is that near the end of the last Ice Age, many animals got stuck in the tar over thousands of years. Their struggles attracted predators, and they, too, were trapped in the tar. Over time, they sank and became fossils. Animals today avoid such pits, casting doubt on that story. But observations at La Brea cause even more doubt.
Four odd observations call for the popular story to be revised.
First, very few articulated or complete specimens have been found.1 Instead, the bones are separated. Most are mixed with many other species and are jumbled in tight masses in the pits.
Individual specimens on display in Hancock Park are composed of bones from many different individuals, making “composite skeletons.” Some conventional scientists have suggested that bubbles of methane moving through the tar stirred up the bones. But how such gentle bubbles could so thoroughly dismember and mix these animals is a mystery to them.
Second, many of the bones show “pits and grooves” from bone rubbing against bone. This has been labeled “pit wear.” Exactly how the bones could rub against each other once embedded in sticky tar is also poorly explained.
A third observation is the overwhelming number of carnivore
remains found in the pits compared to herbivores. About 4,000 dire wolves and 2,200 saber-toothed cats were excavated. Contrast that with 36 mammoths, 60 sloths, 220 horses, 300 bison, and 36 camels. Most of the bones were from predators, not prey! Conventional scientists claim this may be due to the biases of the early excavators who concentrated on the biggest bones. However, that claim is not a sufficient explanation because both the predators and prey have sizable bones.
Finally, the geology and paleontology of the site reflect massive flooding events. Excavators readily admit that some of the fossils were transported by moving water via stream channels and were deposited in the asphalt pits. A nearly complete adult Columbian mammoth named “Zed” was washed into the pits by stream flow where it became entombed in tar.
There are also reports of four to eight feet of clay in some of the pits, with gravel and sand beds mixed in. These were most likely from river flow, consistent with regional flooding. Furthermore, test cores revealed four distinct layers of floodplain (river) deposits surrounding the pits. The cores showed weathered and rounded gravels plus the sand and clay that typify today’s river deposits. Even water-saturated plants have been excavated, including part of a cypress tree from Pit 3. These, too, indicate a waterborne origin at La Brea.
Individual specimens on display in Hancock Park are composed of bones from many different individuals, making “composite skeletons.” Some conventional scientists have suggested that bubbles of methane moving through the tar stirred up the bones. But how such gentle bubbles could so thoroughly dismember and mix these animals is a mystery to them.
Second, many of the bones show “pits and grooves” from bone rubbing against bone. This has been labeled “pit wear.” Exactly how the bones could rub against each other once embedded in sticky tar is also poorly explained.
A third observation is the overwhelming number of carnivore
Finally, the geology and paleontology of the site reflect massive flooding events. Excavators readily admit that some of the fossils were transported by moving water via stream channels and were deposited in the asphalt pits. A nearly complete adult Columbian mammoth named “Zed” was washed into the pits by stream flow where it became entombed in tar.
There are also reports of four to eight feet of clay in some of the pits, with gravel and sand beds mixed in. These were most likely from river flow, consistent with regional flooding. Furthermore, test cores revealed four distinct layers of floodplain (river) deposits surrounding the pits. The cores showed weathered and rounded gravels plus the sand and clay that typify today’s river deposits. Even water-saturated plants have been excavated, including part of a cypress tree from Pit 3. These, too, indicate a waterborne origin at La Brea.
Q: How else could water later enter the oily tar pits and saturate the wood?
The conventional story of animals becoming trapped and slowly sinking in tar was initially questioned when the size of the pits and the size of the animals became known. The entrapment theory only survives as myth, perpetuated by those not familiar with the geological evidence."
The conventional story of animals becoming trapped and slowly sinking in tar was initially questioned when the size of the pits and the size of the animals became known. The entrapment theory only survives as myth, perpetuated by those not familiar with the geological evidence."
ICR