The museum will be closed on Thursday, November 28 for the Thanksgiving holiday. We will reopen on Friday, November 29.

Tar Pits of the World

After trekking through the jungle for an hour we came across this 'wild' tar pit. It's a great place to study how wildlife today act around this natural phenomenon.

Tar Pits of the World

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.

Zoom in and click on the map icons to learn about fossiliferous tar pits around the world!

Welcome to the B.R.E.A.S. Project where we are Bridging Research & Education at Asphaltic Sites.

Our mission is to foster integrative research collaborations and build capacity at asphaltic fossil localities around the world. We want to provide collections support and technical expertise to local institutions involved in excavating, preparing, and curating fossils from these asphaltic localities. We will share expertise and initiate staff and student exchanges between these institutions and La Brea Tar Pits. We seek to advance research collaborations and engage local communities by developing education and outreach programs to support local STEM education and to conserve and communicate the importance of these localities. You can follow us on Twitter @BREASproject, on Instagram @B.R.E.A.S and on Facebook BREAS Initiative as well as with #tarpitsoftheworld

Current Projects

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Trinidad and Tobago

Peru

Ecuador

References

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Miller, L. H. 1931. Pleistocene birds from the Carpinteria asphalt of California. University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Sciences, 20 (10). In G. D. Louderback, R. W. Chaney, & H. Williams (Eds.), University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 1931-1932, (pp. 361-374). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Miller, L. H. 1932. Two Pleistocene avifaunas from the Carpinteria asphalt. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 43, 291.
Shaw, C. A., & Quinn, J. P. 2015. The Addition of Smilodon fatalis (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) to the Biota of the Late Pleistocene Carpinteria Asphalt Deposits in California, with Ontogenetic and Ecologic Implications for the Species. La Brea and beyond: The paleontology of asphalt-preserved biotas, ed. JM Harris. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, (42), 91-96

Iturralde-Vinent M.A., MacPhee R.D., Diaz-Franco S., Rojas-Consuegra R., Suarez W., and Lomba A. 2000. Las Breas de San Felipe, a Quaternary fossiliferous asphalt seep near Marti (Matanzas Province, Cuba). Caribbean Journal of Science, 36: 300-313.
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Hoffstetter, R. 1952. Les Mammiferes Pleistocenes de la Republique de l’Equateur. Memoires de la Societe Geologique de France, n.s., 66:1–391.
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DeMay, I. S. 1941. Quaternary bird life of the McKittrick asphalt, California. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication, 530, 35-60.
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Miller, L. H. 1927. The falcons of the McKittrick Pleistocene. In J. Grinnell (Ed.), The Condor, 29 (3), (pp.150-152). Berkeley: Cooper Ornithological Club.
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Miller, S. E. 1983. Late Quaternary insects of Rancho La Brea and McKittrick, California. Quaternary Research, 20, 90-104.
Osborn, H. F. 1925. Mammals and birds of the California tar pools: Rancho La Brea and McKittrick. Natural History, 527-543.
Pierce, W. D. 1949. Fossil arthropods of California: no. 17: The Silphid burying beetles in the asphalt deposits. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 48 (2), 55-70.
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Beebe, B.F. 1976. Comparative skeletal analysis of the genus Dusicyon (South American Canidae) with special consideration of the Late Pleistocene Dusicyon sechurae from tar-seep deposits of Talara, Peru and Salinas, Ecuador. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Toronto: Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 459 pp.
Campbell, K.E., Jr. 1979. The non-passerine Pleistocene avifauna of the Talara tar seeps, northwestern Peru. Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Contributions 118:1–203.
Churcher, C.S. 1966. The insect fauna from the Talara tar-seeps, Peru. Canadian Journal of Zoology 44: 985–993.
Churcher, C.S. 1965. Camelid material of the genus Palaeolama Gervais from the Talara tar-seeps, Peru, with a description of a new subgenus, Astylolama. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 145:161–205.
Churcher, C.S. 1962. Odocoileus salinae and Mazama sp. from the Talara tar seeps , Peru. Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Contributions 57:1–27.
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Czaplewski, N.J. 1990. Late Pleistocene (Lujanian) occurrence of Tonatia silvicola in the Talara tar seeps, Peru. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias 62:235–238.
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Seymour, K.L. 1983. The Felinae (Mammalia: Felidae) from the Late Pleistocene tar seeps at Talara, Peru, with a critical examination of the fossil and recent felines of North and South America. M.Sc. thesis. Toronto: Department of Geology, University of Toronto, 230 pp.

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Onary-Alves, S. Y., Hsiou, A. S. & Rincon, A. D. 2016. The northernmost South American fossil record of Boa constrictor (Boidae, Boinae) from the Plio–Pleistocene of El Breal de Orocual (Venezuela). Alcheringa 41:1–8
Onary-Alves, S. Y., Rincón A.D., & Hsiou A.S. 2018. Fossil snakes (Squamata, Serpentes) from the tar pits of Venezuela: taxonomic, palaeoenvironmental, and palaeobiogeographical implications for the North of South America during the Cenozoic/Quaternary boundary. PeerJ 6:e5402
Prevosti, F. J. and Rincon, A. D. 2007. A new fossil canid assemblage from the late Pleistocene of northern South America: the canids of the Inciarte asphalt Pit (Zulia, Venezuela), fossil record and biogeography. Journal of Paleontology 81 (5)
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SolorzanoA., Rincon A.D., and McDonald H.G. 2015 A New Mammal Assemblage from the Late Pleistocene El Breal de Orocual, Northeast of Venezuela. La Brea and beyond: The paleontology of asphalt-preserved biotas, ed. JM Harris. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, (42), 125-150