Story Topics | La Brea Tar Pits

Life reconstruction of fire at La Brea Tar Pits during the Pleistocene as bison are stuck during a wildfire

Why Did the Ice Age Titans Go Extinct?

A new study reveals that human impacts in an environment made fire-prone by climate change and herbivore loss led to large mammals vanishing from southern California.

Naturalist

How Our Museum Grows

A unique and transformative museum mentorship program about biodiversity begins

Green returning to the Angeles National Forest in Southern California six months after the Station Fire.

Where There's Smoke

A look at what we know and don't know about how growing wildfires impact our natural world, and how we can learn to cope

A Tapestry of Heroes: The 3D Life of Alli Norman

Alli Norman | Just Play Toys

Playing With Fire: Extinction and Survival at La Brea Tar Pits

In California, 13,000 years ago, huge Ice Age mammals that had roamed the landscape for many millennia, suddenly ceased to exist. The cause? Humans, catastrophic fires, and an ecosystem made vulnerable by climate change.

Nature in L.A.

Match Point

Regan Dunn, Interim Assistant Deputy Director and Assistant Curator at La Brea Tar Pits, looks at the pervasive planetary issue of fire with a long-term lens.

Genus Pseudopotamilla polychaete by Leslie Harris

Research and Collections

An Ocean of Worms

Discover an underwater world of incredible marine worms in the ancient rocks off L.A.’s coast

Children looking at flowers with magnifiers

Naturalist Nature in L.A.

Nature Gardens Turn 10

A look back—and forward–at all the nature thriving in NHM’s Nature Gardens.

Some Strings Attached: L.A.'s Premier Puppet Theater

Alex Evans | Bob Baker Marionette Theater Co-Executive Director & Head Puppeteer

Becoming San Gabriel

In 1785, a Gabrieleno-Tongva woman named Toypurina led a revolt against the Spanish colonizers at Mission San Gabriel, cementing her legacy as a symbol of Indigenous resistance and fortitude.