Ice Age Found – a poem by Kate Rauner

La Bera Tar Pits are well known

For ice-age monsters that called them home:

The mammoths, ground sloths, short-faced bears

And saber-toothed cats found there.

It’s from the smallest creatures that

We learn about the habitat.

Bacterias once unnamed,

From insects and from pollen grains.

Flies and termites, water fleas;

We draw a picture based on these

Of a forest moist and dim

That formed the home they all lived in.

Two rare pupa bees were found,

Trapped forever in the ground,

Did not emerge or fly or mate,

But others of their kind escaped.

And while the lions now are gone

Leafcutter bees continue on.

learn more:

http://www.livescience.com/44724-leafcutter-bee-fossils-la-brea.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Brea_Tar_Pits#Flora_and_fauna