The La Brea Tar Pits are full of mysteries. Here are three of the most puzzling - Yahoo News

Last year, we began inviting readers to send america their pressing questions astir Los Angeles and California.

Every fewer weeks, we enactment the questions to a vote, asking readers to determine which question they would similar to spot answered successful communicative form.

This question, posed by Ricky Fulton, was included successful 1 of our latest scholar polls: What are the La Brea Tar Pits? Is it a clump of bubbling tar with dinosaur bones sticking out?

You tin ballot successful our adjacent scholar question canvass here. Catch up connected erstwhile stories written arsenic portion of this task here.

There's much than meets the oculus — and chemoreceptor — astatine the La Brea Tar Pits.

For those who don't know, the La Brea Tar Pits is an internationally recognized geological practice site, located successful the mediate of Los Angeles. The tract is known for its galore fossil quarries (referred to arsenic "pits"), wherever animals, plants and insects person gotten stuck and preserved successful asphalt implicit the past 50,000 years.

To scientists, they’re a priceless, unsocial treasure trove of accusation that allows america to amended recognize what past beingness was similar successful present-day Los Angeles.

“The benignant of subject that you tin bash astatine La Brea Tar Pits is worldly that you can't truly bash it different immoderate different paleontological tract successful the world, conscionable due to the fact that we person truthful galore fossils, and they're truthful good preserved,” said Emily Lindsey, subordinate curator and excavation tract director.

Within the odorous goo — a curiosity for locals, tourists and schoolchildren connected tract trips — much than 3.5 cardinal fossils person been discovered.

To reply Fulton's question close disconnected the bat, here's 1 happening they haven't recovered successful the pits: dinosaurs.

That's close — this is an Ice Age fossil site, and experts haven't uncovered immoderate remains of T. rexes, triceratops oregon different non-avian dinosaurs.

While the La Brea Tar Pits are abbreviated connected dinosaur fossils, they’re chock afloat of fossils from legendary Ice Age animals. The 2 astir commonly recovered ample mammals? Dire wolves (shout retired to each the "Game of Thrones" fans) and saber-toothed cats.

Despite the scientists' groundbreaking findings, mysteries proceed to swirl successful the oozing pits.

Sometimes, Lindsey said, the things that scientists don't find successful the tar pits fascinate arsenic overmuch arsenic the bones and different items they uncover.

Lindsey described puzzles posed by the tar pits that stay to beryllium solved.

Here are 3 of the astir tantalizing:

Why are the remains of immoderate autochthonal taxon — specified arsenic upland lions — mostly missing from the tar pits?

Something odd: scientists person uncovered comparatively fewer upland lion remains successful the tar pits.

P-22’s Hollywood personage status aside, it mightiness look weird to interest astir the lack of immoderate upland lion fossils erstwhile the tar pits person revealed the remains of extinct mammoths, dire wolves and elephantine crushed sloths.

Still, it’s unusual that upland lions — which existed successful the Los Angeles country during the Ice Age — marque up specified a tiny percent of the scientists’ findings successful the tar pits. The Tar Pits person remains from astatine slightest 7 antithetic upland lions, portion its saber-toothed cats fig determination betwixt 2,500 and 3,000.

And it’s not lone upland lions missing from the tar pits.

“We person precise fewer upland lions, precise fewer deer...and lone 1 raccoon,” she said. Aside from coyotes, scientists person recovered “very fewer of these [large mammal] ‘survivors of the Ice Age,’ which is an absorbing thing.”

Why mightiness upland lions beryllium missing from the tar pits?

The reply could assistance scientists overgarment a much elaborate representation of what beingness successful prehistoric Los Angeles was like.

Lindsey and her colleagues person a fewer ideas. Among different imaginable explanations, it’s imaginable that – existent to their sanction – upland lions person ever preferred to beryllium successful the highlands, not the flatter areas of present-day Los Angeles adjacent the tar pits.

Or, it mightiness person been that upland lions were acrophobic to hunt successful the aforesaid areas arsenic saber toothed cats. “A upland lion looks similar a house-cat adjacent to a saber-toothed feline – [it’s possible] they wanted to enactment distant and not beryllium astir each these large scary things.”

Where is the grounds of quality life?

Mountain lions, raccoons and cervid aren’t the lone mammals missing from the tar pits. There’s besides a conspicuous deficiency of quality remains.

“Humans were here, but wherefore don't we find immoderate grounds of them astatine the La Brea Tar pits?” Lindsey asked. “We person 1 quality skeleton, and past we person immoderate artifacts that are astir apt each from the Holocene (our existent geological epoch), but we person nary grounds of humans overlapping with oregon interacting with the megafauna" via hunting.

This is puzzling, due to the fact that “many — possibly adjacent astir — scientists deliberation that the large origin of the extinctions of the megafauna was quality activity,” Lindsey explains.

Similar to the upland lions, Lindsey notes that the lack of past humans could constituent to their reticence astatine hunting adjacent saber-toothed cats and different unsafe animals.

“It mightiness person been that the civilization that was present was coastally adapted and didn’t request to brave, for example, a battalion of dire wolves to spell hunt a equine oregon a camel," she said. "They could enactment adjacent the enactment and prime shellfish.”

Why did ample mammals commencement disappearing — and what does that archer america astir our future?

Once upon a time, elephantine mammals roamed large swaths of the earth.

“There were elephantine wombats successful Australia, determination were elephantine lemurs successful Madagascar, determination were elephantine sloths and armadillos successful South America,” Lindsey said.

So, Lindsey asks, wherefore don't we person saber-toothed cats and mammoths and elephantine crushed sloths wandering astir Wilshire Boulevard today?

A melodramatic alteration occurred. “At the extremity of the Ice Age, thing happened, and it wiped disconnected the apical extremity of the assemblage size organisation everyplace but for Africa,” she said. “That's the biggest extinction lawsuit since the 66 million-year-ago dinosaur extinction event.”

Even much chilling, the nonaccomplishment of the elephantine mammals is coming to beryllium recognized arsenic “the archetypal pulse successful the biodiversity situation that we're successful today,” she said.

Why did this extinction lawsuit happen? “Most scientists deliberation that humans indispensable person had a beauteous important relation successful this extinction. But the different happening that was happening was we were coming retired of the Ice Age – the past large occurrence of planetary warming,” she said.

“Understanding benignant of the interplay betwixt climate change and quality activities, however that impacts ecosystems and however those 2 processes tin intersect to thrust extinctions is incredibly important.”

The La Brea Tar Pits are positioned to assistance lick the enigma of wherefore precisely the elephantine mammals died out, owed to the size and scope of its findings, which tin beryllium radiocarbon-dated and matched with known shifts that happened simultaneously with humans and the climate.

On the other broadside of the coin, 90% of the taxon recovered astatine the tar pits person not gone extinct. "We person tons of rabbits, rodents, lizards, insects, and songbirds successful our grounds that inactive unrecorded successful the L.A. country today," Lindsey said via email.

“We're a grounds of endurance and resilience,” she said, which begs a fewer questions. “What made upland lions successful? What made coyotes truthful successful? What made oak trees successful?”

As the clime crisis worsens today, the answers to these mysteries could illustration a way for the future.

“The adjacent respective decades to respective centuries are going to beryllium 1 of truly utmost planetary change,” Lindsey said. “How tin we usage that accusation to assistance beingness win going forward?”

This existential question should springiness you thing to ponder the adjacent clip you walk the Tar Pits’ iconic (and heartrending) mammoth statues disconnected Wilshire Boulevard.

This communicative was written straight successful effect to a reader's question astir the La Brea Tar Pits. Do you person a question astir beingness successful Los Angeles oregon California? Ask us!

This communicative primitively appeared successful Los Angeles Times.