Editing Smilodon (section)

=== Natural traps ===
[[File:Smilodon and Canis dirus.jpg|thumb|''S. fatalis'' fighting [[dire wolves]] over a [[Columbian mammoth]] carcass in the [[La Brea Tar Pits]], by [[Robert Bruce Horsfall]], 1913]]

Many ''Smilodon'' specimens have been excavated from [[asphalt seeps]] that acted as natural carnivore traps. Animals were accidentally trapped in the seeps and became bait for predators that came to scavenge, but these were then trapped themselves. The best-known of such traps are at La Brea in Los Angeles, which have produced over 166,000 ''Smilodon fatalis'' specimens<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Shaw|first1=Christopher A.|last2=Quinn|first2=James P.|title=The Addition of ''Smilodon fatalis'' (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) to the Biota of the Late Pleistocene Carpinteria Asphalt Deposits in California, with Ontogenetic and Ecologic Implications for the Species|publisher=Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County|journal=Science Series 42: Contributions in Science |issue=A special volume entitled La Brea and Beyond: the Paleontology of Asphalt–Preserved Biotas in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's excavations at Rancho La Brea|editor=John M. Harris|date=September 15, 2015|pages=91–95|url=https://tarpits.org/sites/default/files/blog_images/La%20Brea%20and%20Beyond%202015.%20NHM%20Science%20Science%20No.%2042.pdf|access-date=September 30, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225011549/http://www.tarpits.org/sites/default/files/blog_images/La%20Brea%20and%20Beyond%202015.%20NHM%20Science%20Science%20No.%2042.pdf|archive-date=December 25, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> that form the largest collection in the world. The sediments of the pits there were accumulated 40,000 to 10,000 years ago, in the [[Late Pleistocene]]. Though the trapped animals were buried quickly, predators often managed to remove limb bones from them, but they were themselves often trapped and then scavenged by other predators; 90% of the excavated bones belonged to predators.{{Sfn|Antón|2013|pp=30–33}}

The Talara Tar Seeps in Peru represent a similar scenario, and have also produced fossils of ''Smilodon''. Unlike in La Brea, many of the bones were broken or show signs of weathering. This may have been because the layers were shallower, so the thrashing of trapped animals damaged the bones of previously trapped animals. Many of the carnivores at Talara were juveniles, possibly indicating that inexperienced and less fit animals had a greater chance of being trapped. Though Lund thought accumulations of ''Smilodon'' and herbivore fossils in the Lagoa Santa Caves were due to the cats using the caves as dens, these are probably the result of animals dying on the surface, and water currents subsequently dragging their bones to the floor of the cave, but some individuals may also have died after becoming lost in the caves.{{Sfn|Antón|2013|pp=30–33}}