Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats
The La Brea Tar Pits are an one-of-a-kind fossil site in Los Angeles. The site contains fossils of predators that tried to eat horses, bison and camels stuck in the tar over the past 50,000 years and themselves became trapped, offering the best opportunity to understand Ice Age animals facing climate change. In the most detailed study to date of ancient predators trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits, Larisa DeSantis, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Evolution@Vanderbilt member, is helping Americans understand why today we’re dealing with coyotes dumping over garbage cans and not saber-toothed cats ripping our arms off. The study appeared in the journal Current Biology.