The La Brea Tar Pits is a group of tar pits in Los Angeles where asphalt forms naturally and seeps up from the ground. These pits have been there for thousands of years. Sometimes animals wandered into the area and would get trapped in the tar. When this happened, the bones would be preserved. Scientists have found millions of bones from 231 species of vertebrates, 159 species of plants and 234 species of invertebrates in the tar so far. The most common bones come from dire wolves; the second most common are the saber- toothed cats. These are also some of the oldest fossils; they are believed to be around 44,000 years old. These animals found in the tar pits lived during the last ice age.
• There are many kinds of saber-toothed cats, but the most commonly known is the saber-toothed tiger.
• They are named after the long teeth that protruded from the sides of their mouth.
• The teeth were around a foot long.
• They used these teeth to stab their prey.
• They were about the size of Siberian tigers, 350-620 pounds.
• They were most commonly found in North America and South America. • Bones from 2,000 individual saber-toothed cats have been found in the La Brea Tar Pits.
• They probably drooled as Saint Bernards do.
• Sabre-toothed tigers went extinct 12,000 years ago.
• They are not related to tigers.
• Different species of saber-toothed cats had differently shaped teeth.
• They were more muscular and shorter than today’s big cats.
• They most likely hunted by ambushing prey.
• They did not have very strong jaws because a strong bite could break their teeth.
• They were carnivorous.
• They had short tails.
• Scientists think they lived in packs like lions do today.
An ice age is a period, sometimes millions of years, where the global temperature is colder, and the glaciers expand. Earth has had five ice ages. The last one is just called the ice age and ended 11,700 years ago. During this period, the Earth looked very different. Massive sheets of ice 12,000 feet thick covered Canada, Russia, Scandinavia and South America. The animals were different as well. Mastodons, saber-toothed cats and giant ground sloths were common in the ice age.
