The museum will be closed on Wednesday, December 25 for the Christmas holiday. We will reopen on Thursday, December 26.

Tar Pits of the World

After trekking through the jungle for an hour we came across this 'wild' tar pit. It's a great place to study how wildlife today act around this natural phenomenon.

Tar Pits of the World

Asphaltic deposits or "tar pits" present a unique opportunity to study past ecosystems because they preserve many different kinds of fossils (and lots of them!).
Tar pits are especially important for scientists in areas where fossils don't normally preserve well, such as the Neotropics.

Zoom in and click on the map icons to learn about fossiliferous tar pits around the world!

Welcome to the B.R.E.A.S. Project where we are Bridging Research & Education at Asphaltic Sites.

Our mission is to foster integrative research collaborations and build capacity at asphaltic fossil localities around the world. We want to provide collections support and technical expertise to local institutions involved in excavating, preparing, and curating fossils from these asphaltic localities. We will share expertise and initiate staff and student exchanges between these institutions and La Brea Tar Pits. We seek to advance research collaborations and engage local communities by developing education and outreach programs to support local STEM education and to conserve and communicate the importance of these localities. You can follow us on Twitter @BREASproject, on Instagram @B.R.E.A.S and on Facebook BREAS Initiative as well as with #tarpitsoftheworld

Current Projects

1 of 1

Trinidad and Tobago

Peru

Ecuador

References

DeMay, I. S. 1941. Pleistocene bird life of the Carpinteria asphalt, California. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication, 530, 61-76.
Miller, L. H. 1931. Pleistocene birds from the Carpinteria asphalt of California. University of California Publications, Bulletin of the Department of Geological Sciences, 20 (10). In G. D. Louderback, R. W. Chaney, & H. Williams (Eds.), University of California Publications in Geological Sciences, 1931-1932, (pp. 361-374). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Miller, L. H. 1932. Two Pleistocene avifaunas from the Carpinteria asphalt. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 43, 291.
Shaw, C. A., & Quinn, J. P. 2015. The Addition of Smilodon fatalis (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) to the Biota of the Late Pleistocene Carpinteria Asphalt Deposits in California, with Ontogenetic and Ecologic Implications for the Species. La Brea and beyond: The paleontology of asphalt-preserved biotas, ed. JM Harris. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, (42), 91-96

Iturralde-Vinent M.A., MacPhee R.D., Diaz-Franco S., Rojas-Consuegra R., Suarez W., and Lomba A. 2000. Las Breas de San Felipe, a Quaternary fossiliferous asphalt seep near Marti (Matanzas Province, Cuba). Caribbean Journal of Science, 36: 300-313.
Steadman D.W., Martin P.S., MacPhee R.D., Jull A.J., McDonald H.G., Woods C.A., Iturralde-Vinent M., and Hodgins G.W.. 2005. Asynchronous extinction of late Quaternary sloths on continents and islands. PNAS, 33: 11763-11768.

Hoffstetter, R. 1952. Les Mammiferes Pleistocenes de la Republique de l’Equateur. Memoires de la Societe Geologique de France, n.s., 66:1–391.
Hoffstetter, R. 1949. Sobre los Megatheriidae del Pleistoceno del Ecuador, Schaubia, gen. nov. Boletın de Informaciones Cientıficas Nacionales Supplement 3(25):1–45.
Lemon, R.R. and C.S. Churcher. 1961. Pleistocene geology and paleontology of the Talara region, northwest Peru. American Journal of Science 259:410–429.
Lindsey E.L. and Lopez E.X. 2015. Tanque Loma. A new late-Pleistocene megafaunal tar seep locality from southwest Ecuador. Journal of South American Earth Sciences, 57: 61-82.
Lindsey E.L. and Seymour KL. 2015. "Tar Pits" of the Western Neotropics: paleoecology, taphonomy, and mammalian biogeography. La Brea and beyond: The paleontology of asphalt-preserved biotas, ed. JM Harris. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, (42), 111-124
Martınez, J.-N., and R. Cadenillas. 2004. Paleoambientede la region de Talara—La Brea (Piura, Peru) hacia el fin del Pleistoceno: Datos sugeridos por las paleocomunidades de mamıferos. Resu - menes extendidos del XII Congreso Peruano de Geologıa—Publicacion Especial de la Sociedad Geologica del Peru:481–484.

DeMay, I. S. 1941. Quaternary bird life of the McKittrick asphalt, California. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication, 530, 35-60.
Fox-Dobbs K., Dundas R.G., Trayler R.B., and Holroyd P.A. 2014. Paleoecological implications of new megafaunal 14C ages from the McKittrick tar seeps, California. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 34: 220-223. 7
Miller, L. H. 1927. The falcons of the McKittrick Pleistocene. In J. Grinnell (Ed.), The Condor, 29 (3), (pp.150-152). Berkeley: Cooper Ornithological Club.
Miller, L. H. 1935. A second avifauna from the McKittrick Pleistocene. In J. Grinnell (Ed.), The Condor, 37 (2), (pp. 72-79). Berkeley: Cooper Ornithological Club.
Miller, S. E. 1983. Late Quaternary insects of Rancho La Brea and McKittrick, California. Quaternary Research, 20, 90-104.
Osborn, H. F. 1925. Mammals and birds of the California tar pools: Rancho La Brea and McKittrick. Natural History, 527-543.
Pierce, W. D. 1949. Fossil arthropods of California: no. 17: The Silphid burying beetles in the asphalt deposits. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 48 (2), 55-70.
Pierce, W. D. 1947. Fossil arthropods of California: no. 14: A progress report on the McKittrick Asphalt Field. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 47 (3), 138-143.
Schultz, J. R. 1937. A late quaternary mammal fauna from the tar seeps of McKittrick, California. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, California Institute of Technology.
Stock, C. 1938. The tar seeps of McKittrick, California.
Stock, C. 1928. A peccary from the McKittrick Pleistocene, California. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publications, 393, 25-27

Beebe, B.F. 1976. Comparative skeletal analysis of the genus Dusicyon (South American Canidae) with special consideration of the Late Pleistocene Dusicyon sechurae from tar-seep deposits of Talara, Peru and Salinas, Ecuador. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Toronto: Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 459 pp.
Campbell, K.E., Jr. 1979. The non-passerine Pleistocene avifauna of the Talara tar seeps, northwestern Peru. Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Contributions 118:1–203.
Churcher, C.S. 1966. The insect fauna from the Talara tar-seeps, Peru. Canadian Journal of Zoology 44: 985–993.
Churcher, C.S. 1965. Camelid material of the genus Palaeolama Gervais from the Talara tar-seeps, Peru, with a description of a new subgenus, Astylolama. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London 145:161–205.
Churcher, C.S. 1962. Odocoileus salinae and Mazama sp. from the Talara tar seeps , Peru. Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Contributions 57:1–27.
Churcher, C.S. 1959. Fossil Canis from the tar pits of La Brea, Peru. Science 130:564–565.
Churcher, C.S. and C.G. van Zyll de Jong. 1965. Conepatus talarae n. sp. from the Talara tar-seeps, Peru. Royal Ontario Museum Life Sciences Contributions 62:1–15.
Czaplewski, N.J. 1990. Late Pleistocene (Lujanian) occurrence of Tonatia silvicola in the Talara tar seeps, Peru. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias 62:235–238.
Oswald J.A. and Steadman J.A. 2015. The changing diversity and distribution of dry forest passerine birds in northwestern Peru since the last ice age. The Auk, 132(4):836-862. doi.org/10.1642/AUK-15-74.1
Seymour K. A. 2015. Perusing Talara: Overview of the Late Pleistocene Fossils from the Tar Seeps of Peru. La Brea and beyond: The paleontology of asphalt-preserved biotas, ed. JM Harris. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, (42), 97-110
Seymour, K.L. 1983. The Felinae (Mammalia: Felidae) from the Late Pleistocene tar seeps at Talara, Peru, with a critical examination of the fossil and recent felines of North and South America. M.Sc. thesis. Toronto: Department of Geology, University of Toronto, 230 pp.

Blair KG. 1927. Insect remains from oil sand in Trinidad. Transactions of the Entomological Society of London – Part 1, 137-142.
Brock F, Ostapkowicz J, Wiedenhoeft AC, Bull ID. 2017. Radiocarbon dating wooden carvings and skeletal remains from Pitch Lake, Trinidad. Radiocarbon, 59: 1447-461.
Comeau PL. 1993-1994. The vegetation surrounding mud volcanoes in Trinidad. Living World Journal of the Trinidad & Tobago Field Naturalist’s Club. 17-27.
Deville E, Battani A, Griboulard R, Guerlais S, Herbin JP, Houzay JP, Muller C, Prinzhofer A. 2003. The origin and processes of mud volcanism: new insights from Trinidad. Subsurface Sediment Mobilization, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 216: 475-490.
Eshelman, Ralph E., and Gary S. Morgan. 1985. Tobagan Recent mammals, fossil vertebrates, and their zoogeographical implications. National Geographic Society Research Reports. 21:137-143.
Hosein R, Haque S, Beckles DM. 2014. Mud volcanoes of Trinidad as astrobiological analogs for Martian environments. Life, 4: 566-585.
Kumar A. 1981. Palynology of the Pitch Lake, Trinidad, West Indies. Pollen et Spores, 23: 259-272.
Ostapkowicz J., Brock F., Wiedenhoeft A.C., Snoeck C., Pouncett J., Baksh-Comeau Y., Schulting R., Claeys P., Mattielli N., Richards M., and Boomert A. 2017. Black pitch, carved histories: radiocarbon dating, wood species identification and strontium isotope analysis of prehistoric wood carvings from Trinidad’s Pitch Lake. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 16:341-358.
UNESCO, World Heritage Center. 2011. La Brea Pitch Lake. https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5645.
Wing ES. 1962. A succession of mammalian faunas on Trinidad, West Indies. PhD Thesis, University of Florida.

Onary-Alves, S. Y., Hsiou, A. S. & Rincon, A. D. 2016. The northernmost South American fossil record of Boa constrictor (Boidae, Boinae) from the Plio–Pleistocene of El Breal de Orocual (Venezuela). Alcheringa 41:1–8
Onary-Alves, S. Y., Rincón A.D., & Hsiou A.S. 2018. Fossil snakes (Squamata, Serpentes) from the tar pits of Venezuela: taxonomic, palaeoenvironmental, and palaeobiogeographical implications for the North of South America during the Cenozoic/Quaternary boundary. PeerJ 6:e5402
Prevosti, F. J. and Rincon, A. D. 2007. A new fossil canid assemblage from the late Pleistocene of northern South America: the canids of the Inciarte asphalt Pit (Zulia, Venezuela), fossil record and biogeography. Journal of Paleontology 81 (5)
Ruiz-Ramoni, D. Rincon, A. D., Solórzano, A. & Moya-Sola, S. 2017. The first fossil Platyrrhini (Primates: Anthropoidea) from Venezuela: A capuchin monkey from the Plio-Pleistocene of El Breal de Orocual. Journal of Human Evolution 105.
Rincón, A. D., G. E. Parra, F. J. Prevosti, M. T. Alberdi, and C. J. Bell. 2009. A preliminary assessment of the mammalian fauna from the Pliocene-Pleistocene El Breal de Orocual locality, Monagas State, Venezuela. Pp. 593-620 in Papers on Geology, Vertebrate Paleontology, and Biostratigraphy in Honor of Michael O. Woodburne (L. B. Albright, III, ed.). Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 65.
SolorzanoA., Rincon A.D., and McDonald H.G. 2015 A New Mammal Assemblage from the Late Pleistocene El Breal de Orocual, Northeast of Venezuela. La Brea and beyond: The paleontology of asphalt-preserved biotas, ed. JM Harris. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, (42), 125-150