What were the climate and vegetation at La Brea like when the extinct animals were alive?
While under the influence of the waning Ice Age, La Brea’s climate was somewhat cooler and moister than today. This climate produced a vegetation similar in type to that which presently exists on California’s Monterey Peninsula, located approximately 300 miles to the north. Fossils evidence also indicates shallow ponds and marshes existed at La Brea. Intermittent streams transported drier inland vegetation as well as traces of redwood, which probably grew in sheltered canyons in the local mountains.
