{"id":529,"date":"2019-08-07T18:54:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T18:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/?p=529"},"modified":"2021-11-05T00:41:45","modified_gmt":"2021-11-05T00:41:45","slug":"intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"750\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_O_jfNYXlTc?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>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, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/larisadesantisdreamlab\/\">Larisa DeSantis<\/a><\/strong>, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Evolution@Vanderbilt member, is helping Americans understand why today we\u2019re dealing with coyotes dumping over garbage cans and not saber-toothed cats ripping our arms off. The study appeared in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0960982219307869\"><em>Current Biology<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.vanderbilt.edu\/2019\/08\/05\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/\" class=\"broken_link\"><strong>Press Release<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1079,"featured_media":530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats - Evolution@Vanderbilt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Evolution@Vanderbilt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-08-07T18:54:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-11-05T00:41:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wp0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/07185417\/La-Brea.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"795\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"410\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"rokasa\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/\",\"name\":\"Evolution@Vanderbilt\",\"description\":\"Evolutionary Studies Initiative at ÎåÒ»²è¹Ý¶ù\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/19224120\/La-Brea.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/19224120\/La-Brea.jpg\",\"width\":795,\"height\":410},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/\",\"name\":\"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats - Evolution@Vanderbilt\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-08-07T18:54:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-11-05T00:41:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#\/schema\/person\/267a0a31389453b999f964ecf70aeece\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#\/schema\/person\/267a0a31389453b999f964ecf70aeece\",\"name\":\"rokasa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/author\/rokasa\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats - Evolution@Vanderbilt","og_description":"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...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/","og_site_name":"Evolution@Vanderbilt","article_published_time":"2019-08-07T18:54:57+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-11-05T00:41:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":795,"height":410,"url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-wp0\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/07185417\/La-Brea.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"rokasa","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/","name":"Evolution@Vanderbilt","description":"Evolutionary Studies Initiative at ÎåÒ»²è¹Ý¶ù","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/19224120\/La-Brea.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/19224120\/La-Brea.jpg","width":795,"height":410},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/","name":"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats - Evolution@Vanderbilt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2019-08-07T18:54:57+00:00","dateModified":"2021-11-05T00:41:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#\/schema\/person\/267a0a31389453b999f964ecf70aeece"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/intense-look-at-la-brea-tar-pits-explains-why-we-have-coyotes-not-saber-toothed-cats\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Intense look at La Brea Tar Pits explains why we have coyotes, not saber-toothed cats"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/#\/schema\/person\/267a0a31389453b999f964ecf70aeece","name":"rokasa","url":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/author\/rokasa\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/vu-URL\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/295\/2019\/08\/19224120\/La-Brea.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbblkY-8x","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1079"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":623,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions\/623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/evolution\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}