Fires wiped out megafauna.

News Palaeontology CATASTROPHIC fires were the immediate cause of the extinction of many large mammals in southern California 13,000 years ago, according to a study of fossils from the La Brea tar pits. O'Keefe and his colleagues have now used radiocarbon dating on 172 bones from eight species. The tar pits at La Brea in Los Angeles have trapped numerous animals over the past 50,000 years, preserving their bones. [Extracted from the article]