After a morning at the Walt Disney Concert Hall we went to the La Brea Tar Pits. It had been years (at least 20) since we visited the the only "Ice Age fossil site in the world that's being actively excavated in the middle of a city."
The Tar Pits have fascinated scientists and visitors for over a century. Over the last 50,000 years, Ice Age animals, plants, and insects were trapped in sticky asphalt, which preserved them to be discovered today. Steve and I both came as children and have never forgotten it.In 1963, Rancho La Brea was designated a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.Exploring Hancock Park, where over 100 fossil quarries, commonly called pits have been excavated, is free and open to the public. Since we arrived too late in the day to explore the museum, we meandered through through this 23 acre
historic site.
The iconic Lake Pit, located in front of the museum, is actually a pit left over from asphalt mining operations in the late 1800s. Rain and groundwater has collected above the bubbling asphalt, creating a small lake. The lake’s bubbles, sheet, and distinctive odor come from a deep underground oil field. Here we all marveled at the recreation of a mammoth becoming trapped in tar.Since 1906, more than one million bones have been recovered, representing over 231 species of vertebrates. In addition, 159 species of plants and 234 species of invertebrates have been identified. It is estimated that the collections at La Brea Tar Pits contain about three million items.I remember, so clearly, walking through this park and seeing oozing asphalt. How fun for our grands to make the same memories.The extinct animals discovered at La Brea Tar Pits were trapped in the asphalt between 11,000 to 50,000 years ago. They may have lived in the Los Angeles region for much of the last 100,000 years. Before that time the Los Angeles Basin was covered by the Pacific Ocean.Each of the Dig sites provided unique information.Asphalt (misnamed tar) is very sticky, particularly when it is warm. Small mammals, birds, and insects inadvertently coming into contact with it would be immobilized as if trapped like flies on flypaper. The feet and legs of heavier animals might sink a few inches below the surface. Depending on the time of day or year, strong and healthy animals might have managed to escape, but others would have been held fast until they died of exhaustion, or fell prey to passing predators. A single, mired large herbivore might attract the attention of a dozen predatory birds and mammals, some of which would in turn become trapped and provide more food for other carnivores.
This was the place Steve and I came to which left such lasting impressions: the Observation Pit.The observation pit (sadly closed) is a partially excavated deposit of fossils and bubbling asphalt enclosed in a circular building that first opened in 1952. With a depth of excavation 12 feet and located on the site of Pit 101, the display in the Observation Pit demonstrates what the fossil localities looked like while being excavated. This building was dedicated in 1951 to the memory of Dr. Chester Stock, the Caltech professor and County Museum curator, who personally described many of the different kinds of fossil mammals recovered from the tar pits.Like so many things, we only scratched the surface of this amazing place and have made a pact to return again, soon!
“The La Brea Tar Pits were a place where the skin of the world broke open to reveal the magic underneath, and the life-sized plaster mammoth sculptures emphasized a very important message: Do not mess with the tar.”― Greg Van Eekhout, California Bones
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1 comments:
Great pictures of the tar pits. What a fun place to visit. I think their museum is super fabulous.
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