La Brea Tar Pits and Museum

10/15/2026

Our team from La Brea Tar Pits and Museum is taking over the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in Exposition Park for a day filled with fun activities for your students!

Wednesday, October 28, join us for our Homeschool Day as we discuss all of the plants and animals that survived the Ice Age, from the fossils we find to the living descendants we see today. Drop in on nature chats with our scientists and educators, make a Tar Pits-inspired craft, or explore the Museum with our special scavenger hunt.

Register today: https://go.nhm.org/oct-homeschool

10/07/2026

🐾 Fang-tastic moments courtesy of ktlaunscripted and erinmyersktla on Instagram.

See how we're reimagining the for the future: https://tarpits.org/reimagine

10/02/2026

While the La Brea Tar Pits Museum is closed for renovations, its scientific discoveries continue! Visit active excavations and take Insider Tours at Hancock Park and discover more science just one transfer away at the Natural History Museum.

The Metro Art Culture Pass featuring La Brea Tar Pits may be obtained upon request at ticketing desks at NHM in Exposition Park while supplies last: https://go.nhm.org/tar-pits-tap

09/26/2026

Digging through the archives! Do you have a favorite memory?

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09/23/2026

What happens when you disrupt plants? You disrupt ecosystems!

Tune in as Assistant Curator Dr. Regan Dunn chats with Dr. Matt Candeias on the podcast “In Defense of Plants” and shares how her work is uncovering sobering insights into how climate and plants interact during important periods in Earth's history.

In Defense of Plants' Matt Candeias talks with paleobotanist Dr. Regan Dunn of the La Brea Tar Pits about how climate change disrupts plant communities and what that means for species extinctions.

09/21/2026

Millions of fossils. 23 Boxes. One epic dig.

Located in Hancock Park, Project 23 is an ongoing excavation where staff scientists and volunteers work on excavating 23 boxes of fossil deposits discovered in 2006 during the construction of an underground parking garage. New fossils are discovered daily and the number of new fossils from Project 23 is in the millions, enough to double the collections!

09/11/2026

From Pampatheres and Gomphotheres to Eremotheres, discover some of the Ice Age titans of Pampa La Brea, the asphaltic site in Talara, Peru, where researchers have been working alongside colleagues at Instituto de Paleontología y Evolución geobiológica - UNP: https://go.nhm.org/peruvian-tar-pits

09/07/2026

Fossil deposits from the Tar Pits provide a remarkable record of life in the Los Angeles region toward the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Because many specimens are unusually well preserved, scientists can study animals that disappeared thousands of years ago in remarkable detail.

But these fossils tell us more than stories of the past. They can help answer questions about how climate change, human activity, and extinction have shaped—and continue to shape—animals and ecosystems today and into the future.

https://go.nhm.org/tar-pits-research

09/04/2026

There may be only one La Brea Tar Pits, but (although rare) there are other 𝙩𝙖𝙧 𝙥𝙞𝙩𝙨 on the planet.

Get a sneak peek as our excavators take you to what is possibly the second most fossil-rich tar pit in Peru, where researchers from the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research have been working alongside colleagues at the Instituto de Paleontología y Evolución geobiológica - UNP as part of the B.R.E.A.S. initiative (Bridging Research and Education at Asphaltic Sites).

Don't miss “Peru’s Tar Pits”, coming soon from La Brea Tar Pits.

Check out this New Teaser for "Peru's Tar Pits" a short documentary...

09/01/2026

A look back into our pre-closure past. Have you shared your memories with us yet?

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