Mckittrick Tar Pits

Though these tar pits may suffer in comparison with the famed Rancho La Braa tar pits, they have yielded, however, a substantial fauna of the late Pleistocene, Rancho La Brean age. Some 43 species of mammals, 20 now extinct, have been removed from these pits. They include sabre-toothed tigers, ground sloths, horses, bison, antelope, mastodons, dire wolf and a host of smaller mammals.

Eighty-eight species of birds, of which 9 species are now extinct, have been uncovered here, including forms similar to present-day grebes, herons, bitterns, storks, vultures, hawks, falcons, cranes, ibises and others. Additionally, numerous insects have been found.

These seeps are still active and even today animals may be trapped. The tar pits were formed when the underlying oil-saturated anticline was broken by a fault, allowing the oil to leak to the surface.

Vegetation in the area is an Atriplex scrub association, with Atriplex lentiformis dominant.

Integrity: There are producing oil wells in the area. The pits have been well worked but undoubtedly numerous fossils remain.

Use: Private

Ref: Manning and Edinger (date unknown). Fossil Material of the McKittrick Tar Pits.

October 1977