Paleontological Significance
Animals are usually unable to escape from the asphalt when they fall in, making these pits excellent locations to excavate bones of prehistoric animals. The tar pits can trap animals because the asphalt that seeps up from underground forms a bitumen pit thick enough to relentlessly grab even mammoths until they die of starvation, exhaustion of trying to escape or from the heat that would come from the sun. Over one million fossils have been found in tar pits around the globe.
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