RANCHO LA BREA
by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Rancho La Brea (colloquially known as the La Brea Tar Pits) is one of the world's most famous fossil localities, recognized for having the largest and most diverse assemblage of Ice Age plants and animals in the world. The paleontological site, which is located in the heart of Los Angeles' Miracle Mile district, is still being excavated seven days/week, and the open-air excavations and Fishbowl fossil lab offer hundreds of thousands of visitors per year a direct window into the paleontological process.
The Rancho La Brea collections, which are housed on-site at the La Brea Tar Pits Museum, comprise more than 4 million specimens representing over 600 species of plants and animals. These collections document the changing ecosystems of the Los Angeles basin over the past 50,000 years and serve as a resource to scientists around the world who are studying past and current impacts of climate change, human activities, evolution, and extinction.
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