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smilodon skeleton inside tar pits interior

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Saber-toothed Cats

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Digital Guide to La Brea Tar Pits

Explore La Brea Tar Pits—including the new Mark Dion exhibit Excavations—as well as over 160 international museums, galleries, sculpture parks, gardens, and cultural spaces on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app.

Smilodon, Saber-Tooths, and Tigers…Oh My!

How Smilodon became saber-toothed tigers—and why they're really saber-toothed cats

Extinction and Survival at La Brea Tar Pits

Groundbreaking new research from La Brea Tar Pits curators finds that 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.

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.

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.

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Saber-toothed Summer Self-Guided Tour

Smilodon for the camera and capture some purrfect pics on this selfie scavenger hunt. Discover everything there is to know about the fearsome feline with the killer canines only at La Brea Tar Pits.

Camp Croods at La Brea Tar Pits

Join in all the saber-toothed cat-sized excitement as Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment bring you our FREE virtual event, Camp Croods at La Brea Tar Pits.