Context: The La Brea Tar Pits are a group of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed in urban Los Angeles. Natural asphalt (also called asphaltum, bitumen, pitch or tar"brea" in Spanish) has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with dust, leaves, or water. Over many centuries, the bones of animals that were trapped in the tar were preserved. The George C. Page Museum is dedicated to researching the tar pits and displaying specimens from the animals that died there. The La Brea Tar Pits is a registered National Natural Landmark., Vertebrates comprise all species of animals within the subphylum Vertebrata (chordates with backbones). Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, with currently about 64,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fish and the jawed vertebrates, which include the cartilaginous fish (sharks and rays) and the bony fish. , Canada (French: ) is a country in the northern half of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering , making it the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada's border with the United States is the world's longest land border. The majority of the country has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains. About four-fifths of the country's population of 36 million people is urbanized and live near the southern border. Its capital is Ottawa, its largest city is Toronto; other major urban areas include Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Quebec City, Winnipeg and Hamilton., John Campbell Merriam (October 20, 1869  October 30, 1945) was an American paleontologist, educator, and conservationist. The first vertebrate paleontologist on the West Coast of the United States, he is best known for his taxonomy of vertebrate fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, particularly with the genus "Smilodon", more commonly known as the sabertooth cat. He is also known for his work to extend the reach of the National Park Service., Smilodon is an extinct genus of machairodont felid. It is perhaps one of the most famous prehistoric mammals, and the best known saber-toothed cat. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related to the tiger or other modern cats. "Smilodon" lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 mya10,000 years ago). The genus was named in 1842, based on fossils from Brazil. Three species are recognized today: S. gracilis, S. fatalis and S. populator. The two latter species were probably descended from "S. gracilis", which itself probably evolved from "Megantereon". The largest collection of "Smilodon" fossils has been obtained from the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California., The Jurassic (from Jura Mountains) is a geologic period and system that spans 56.3 million years from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles. The start of the period is marked by the major TriassicJurassic extinction event. Two other extinction events occurred during the period: the Pliensbachian/Toarcian event in the Early Jurassic, and the Tithonian event at the end; however, neither event ranks among the "Big Five" mass extinctions., The Triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50.9 million years from the end of the Permian Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period Mya. The Triassic is the first period of the Mesozoic Era. Both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. The Triassic was named in 1834 by Friedrich von Alberti, after the three distinct rock layers ("tri" meaning "three") that are found throughout Germany and northwestern Europered beds, capped by marine limestone, followed by a series of terrestrial mud- and sandstonescalled the "Trias"., Shonisaurus is a genus of ichthyosaur. At least 37 incomplete fossil specimens of the marine reptile have been found in the Luning Formation of Nevada, USA. This formation dates to the late Carnian age of the late Triassic period, about 215 million years ago., Shastasaurus ("Mt. Shasta lizard") is an extinct genus of ichthyosaur from the middle and late Triassic, and is the largest marine reptile that has yet been found. Specimens have been reported from the United States, Canada, and China., The Permian is a geologic period and system which spans 46.7 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 252.2 Mya. It is the last period of the Paleozoic Era; the following Triassic Period belongs to the Mesozoic Era. The concept of the Permian was introduced in 1841 by geologist Sir Roderick Murchison, who named it after the city of Perm., China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia. With a population of over 1.381 billion, it is the world's most populous country. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China, and its capital is Beijing. It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing), and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan. The country's major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a great power and a major regional power within Asia, and has been characterized as a potential superpower., In biology, an organism is any contiguous living system, such as an animal, plant, fungus, archaeon, or bacterium. All known types of organisms are capable of some degree of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development and homeostasis. An organism consists of one or more cells; when it has one cell it is known as a unicellular organism; and when it has more than one it is known as a multicellular organism. Most unicellular organisms are of microscopic scale and are thus loosely described as microorganisms. Humans are multicellular organisms composed of many trillions of cells grouped into specialized tissues and organs., Shastasauridae is an extinct family of Triassic ichthyosaurs that includes the genera Shastasaurus and Shonisaurus . Many other Triassic ichthyosaurs have been assigned to Shastasauridae in the past , but recent phylogenetic analyses suggest that these species form an evolutionary grade of early ichthyosaurs rather than a true clade or evolutionary grouping that can be called Shastasauridae . Shastasauridae was named by American paleontologist John Campbell Merriam in 1895 along with the newly described genus Shastasaurus . In 1999 , Ryosuke Motani erected the clade Shastasauria to include Shastasaurus , Shonisaurus , and several other traditional shastasaurids , defining it as a stem - based taxon including `` all merriamosaurians more closely related to Shastasaurus pacificus than to Ichthyosaurus communis . '' He also redefined Shastasauridae as a node - based taxon including `` the last common ancestor of Shastasaurus pacificus and Besanosaurus leptorhynchus , and all its descendants '' and Shastasaurinae , which Merriam named in 1908 , as a stem taxon including `` the last common ancestor of Shastasaurus and Shonisaurus , and all its descendants . '' In an alternative classification scheme , paleontologist Michael Maisch restricted Shastasauridae to the genus Shastasaurus and placed Shonisaurus and Besanosaurus in their own monotypic families , Shonisauridae and Besanosauridae ., Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the Cretaceous period, about 99 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than 12,500 of an estimated total of 22,000 species have been classified. They are easily identified by their elbowed antennae and the distinctive node-like structure that forms their slender waists., Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of , and has a largely temperate seasonal climate. With about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular immigration destination in the world. Germany's capital and largest metropolis is Berlin. Other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Düsseldorf., Nevada (Spanish for "snowy"; see pronunciations) is a state in the Western, Mountain West, and Southwestern regions of the United States of America. Nevada is the 7th most extensive, the 34th most populous, and the 9th least densely populated of the 50 United States. Nearly three-quarters of Nevada's people live in Clark County, which contains the Las VegasParadise metropolitan area where three of the state's four largest incorporated cities are located. Nevada's capital is Carson City. Nevada is officially known as the "Silver State" because of the importance of silver to its history and economy. It is also known as the "Battle Born State", because it achieved statehood during the Civil War (the words "Battle Born" also appear on the state flag); as the "Sage-brush State", for the native plant of the same name; and as the "Sage-hen State". Nevada borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast and Utah to the east., A clade (from , "klados", "branch") is a group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants, and represents a single "branch" on the "tree of life"., Ichthyosaurs (Greek for "fish lizard"   or "ichthys" meaning "fish" and  or "sauros" meaning "lizard") are large marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers'  a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1840, although the term is now used more for the parent clade of the Ichthyosauria)., Subject: shastasauridae, Relation: parent_taxon, Options: (A) animal (B) area (C) areas (D) california (E) chordata (F) ichthyosauria (G) insects (H) la (I) lizard (J) mya (K) plant (L) reptile (M) tiger (N) vertebrata
Output: ichthyosauria