While the La Brea Tar Pits have preserved an incredible array of fossils from the Pleistocene epoch, the suggestion that they explain why we have coyotes instead of saber-toothed cats is not accurate. The extinction of saber-toothed cats and the rise of coyotes are the result of complex ecological shifts that occurred over millions of years and were influenced by a variety of factors, not solely the La Brea Tar Pits.