Stories

Welcome to Stories, a place to explore—and be inspired by—the wonder of our natural and cultural worlds.

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.
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.
Geek Out in an Ice Age Daydream
Tar AR brings Ice Age animals back to L.A.
Saber-toothed Cat 101
La Brea Tar Pits presents everything you need to know about saber-toothed cats.
Burro-Ing Into the Past
How introduced donkeys and the indigenous pumas that love (to hunt) them are helping to resurrect extinct food webs in Death Valley
Suiting Up for Smilodon
An exhilaratingly lifelike recreation of a saber-toothed cat will thrill — and teach — audiences in Ice Age Encounters.
Mammoths, meet the metaverse
Paleontologists from La Brea Tar Pits develop a whole herd of scientifically accurate extinct animals to use in AR and VR
Artist Mark Dion's Deep Dive Into The Tar Pits
What blows this celebrated artist's mind? Microscopic ice age plants and rat poop
Talking Tar Pits Turkeys
Dig into some ancient turkey with our Tar Pits team member, Preparator Laura Tewksbury.
Read more
These Hips Don’t Lie: 3D Imaging of a Pelvis Suggests Social Care for Saber Tooths
A new display at La Brea Tar Pits showcases how modern science can shed new light on old fossils.