Stuck! The Story of La Brea Tar Pits

Like a sort of prehistoric rubbish bin filled to the brim, the sticky La Brea Tar Pits have been ""collecting"" victims and natural detritus since the Pleistocene epoch. Here Uglow invites readers to marvel at the amazing bulk and diversity of the well-preserved lode--over 3.5 million specimens, from microfossils to megafauna, have been extracted to date--and think about what researchers can learn from, as she puts it, an ""entire ecosystem jumbled together,"" including ""unlucky predators and prey in stacks."" Along with cross-sectional views of thick subsurface tangles of bones, bugs, and plant material, Milovanova depicts both reconstructed ancient scenes of a giant ground sloth, dire wolves, and other dismayed, now-extinct creatures stuck in black tar and of modern workers systematically excavating and reconstructing skeletons. The author closes with more on how the tar pits were formed and have been explored, accompanied by an eye-widening list of plant and animal species that have been found in them. ""The Tar Pits time capsule tells millions of stories,"" she writes, and cannot fail to ""fill our hearts with wonder."" Thousands of years ago, animals that no longer roam our planet, like a Harlan's Ground Sloth, a saber-toothed Smilodon, and a pack of Dire wolves, approach what looks like a pond of water, only to find themselves trapped in the gooey syrup of the La Brea Tar Pits. The pits soften in the sun, trapping more and more creatures, and as time passes, they are covered with sediment, causing the remains of a myriad of creatures and plants to mix together in the goo. Discovered by oil field workers eons later outside of modern-day Los Angeles and then excavated, the remains found in the Tar Pits have helped scientists learn more about the Pleistocene Epoch--and may tell us not just about the past, but also the future, especially when it's revealed that the Pits are still active and evolving. Playful language and masterful illustrations make for a compelling read instead of a dry scientific tale, and while the list of animals that get stuck is long, the story never feels tedious. Milovanova's illustrations, which suggest cut paper and oil pastel, are rendered in rich earthy tones befitting a tar pit, with animals that leap at angles across and almost off the page until they get ""Stuck! Trapped! Sunk!"" in that sticky, powerful ooze. This stirring story and its dynamic illustrations may manage to enthrall even the least nature-focused kiddo, but any budding scientist will be thrilled to discover the informative and accessible backmatter, where more information includes a timeline, glossary, and list of trapped animals, potentially sparking a desire to learn even more about this viscous part of our planet.