¿CUALES SON LOS
POZOS DE ALQUITRÁN DE LA BREA
Los pozos de alquitrán de La Brea en Los Ángeles, California, albergan uno de los ecosistemas mejor conservados de nuestro pasado reciente, que abarca la segunda mitad de la acertadamente llamada Era Rancholabreana , de 50.000 a 11.000 años antes del presente. El carácter reciente de La Brea es relevante para nosotros, ya que la superposición de especies extintas y vivas atrae las especialidades de nuestro equipo. La abundancia de mamíferos grandes e icónicos en La Brea hace que este sea un entorno perfecto para mostrar el espectro completo de la otrora abundante diversidad de megafauna de América del Norte.
The La Brea Tar Pits ecosystem boasts an impressive assortment of mammals of all sizes, rivaling the biodiversity of the modern African Serengeti ecosystem. This is due to the more temperate climate of the last ice age which allowed for animals from different biogeographic realms to coexist. Neotropical animals like sloths could be found grazing alongside arctic animals such as horses and mammoths.
Illustration by @themongoosedude (Instagram.com/themongoosedude)
% Large Mammal Population in North America
100
0
H. sapiens enter continent
^
% survival of species
Log (time) kYA
Martin P. S. (1989). Prehistoric overkill: A global model. In Quaternary extinctions: A prehistoric revolution (ed. P.S. Martin and R.G. Klein). Tucson, AZ: Univ. Arizona Press. pp. 354–404.
Ecos: La Brea is set approximately 25,000 years ago during the height of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). This was a time when North American ecosystems were highly productive prior to the extinctions that would follow the end of the Late Pleistocene. Around this time, humans were only just pioneering the continent and had not developed into the widespread megafauna-hunting cultures that would soon develop. While not the only factor in the extinction of large mammals, the spread of humans coincides with the extinction of many large mammals in North America.