Maybe the shock of the government releasing proof that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time was to much?
Posted on 06/30/2006 11:57:28 AM PDT by annie laurie
Scientists went to work digging for fossils at La Brea Tar Pits, digging the tooth of a 5-foot (1.5-meter) dire wolf and the toe of a sabertooth tiger from the sticky prehistoric asphalt near downtown Los Angeles.
About 10,000 years before the arrival of mammoth traffic jams in the second-largest U.S. city, the two beasts likely got stuck in the goo while hunting a camel, horse or ground sloth, said John Harris, chief curator and head of vertebrate studies at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, which oversees the site.
''It's one of the, if not the, richest Ice Age excavation sites in the world,'' Harris said Thursday.
The area is a treasure trove of well-preserved bones, plant remnants and microorganisms. Excavationworkbegan in 1915 and has been done every summer since 1969 to the delight of children and other visitors who watch from a glass-enclosed area overlooking the 14-foot (4-meter) deep pit.
The work lasts from July 1 to Sept. 10. During the rest of the year, visitors to the nearby Page Museum can watch scientists behind a glass window scrub fossils found during the excavation.
The site is a favorite among children who let their imaginations wander as they watch tar-covered excavators move along gangplanks.
Through a fence at the park, 7-year-old Ben Guerra and his 9-year-old sister Rhemy got a peek at the dig.
''I like to imagine how the animals attacked the other animals who were stuck in the tar,'' Ben said. ''Maybe they thought it was water and went to get a drink.'' Last summer, scientists unearthed some 3,000 specimens from Pit 91, including bones of coyotes, horses and giant ground sloths.
While the larger bones enthrall most visitors, the remains of tiny insects,animals and microscopic organisms can be equally exciting for scientists.
While alive, those creatures were less likely to wander far from the site. As a result, their remains reveal a great deal about the character of the area tens of thousands of years ago.
''A mouse found here probably spent its whole life within 20 acres,'' said Chris Shaw, the site's project coordinator and collection manager at the Page Museum.
While alive, those creatures were less likely to wander far from the site.Particularly after they got stuck in the bleepin' tar.
As a certified Grammar Nazi, I must point out that "only" means ONLY. The ONLY one. You cannot have "one of the only," although you can have "one of the few."
Drives me nuts when I see bad grammar in the headlines!
Annie, as one of the only people who posts GGG-appropriate topics, I'd like to thank you for following the FR rules regarding posting threads under their original headlines.
So an archaeologist find the archaeologists and the Paleontologists will study his pet dog and straw hat?
Particularly after they got stuck in the bleepin' tar.
You could call it one of the longest pit stops on record.
[rimshot!]
I lost my Top Flite rubber band airplane there many, many, years ago. Always wondered what they'd makeof that.
It does seem to be quite the trend these days; just a few days ago there was a headline (on msnbc.com, I believe) which read "loosing their luster" instead of "losing their luster."
A real teeth-grinder, that one! ;-)
You're certainly welcome :) And may I say thank you for all the work that you do with the GGG list (not to mention the X-planets list) :)
And thanks to you and Bernard Marx for the chuckles in 21 & 25 ;-)
I lost my Top Flite rubber band airplane there many, many, years ago. Always wondered what they'd make of that.
There was a VERY funny book written on just that subject (i.e., how will archaeologists of the future interpret findings from our era?) ... it's called Motel of the Mysteries by David Macaulay.
Good stuff :)
(SC, I pinged you as well, because if you haven't read it yet, you should; I have a feeling you'd get a kick out of it).
Maybe the shock of the government releasing proof that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time was to much?
Mark
This is just too good to be true! lol
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To: annie laurie
As a certified Grammar Nazi, I must point out that "only" means ONLY. The ONLY one. You cannot have "one of the only," although you can have "one of the few."
Drives me nuts when I see bad grammar in the headlines!
22 posted on 06/30/2006 8:39:47 PM PDT by Hetty_Fauxvert (Kelo must GO!! ..... http://sonoma-moderate.blogspot.com/)
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To: annie laurie
Annie, as one of the only people who posts GGG-appropriate topics, I'd like to thank you for following the FR rules regarding posting threads under their original headlines.
23 posted on 06/30/2006 9:04:37 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (updated my FR profile on Wednesday, June 21, 2006.)
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Joan doing reports
live and looking exactly
the way she looks now . . .
Glad to see that I'm not one of the only people annoyed by that grating term.
If you go to Iraan in west Texas, you can see the statues of Ally Oop and Dinny. I've got photos to prove it.
(off topic)Thank you. One of my pet peeves is misused words. These are obvious in how they do not fit the context of the sentence. Sometimes you will see something like "won of the only". When I see something like this, it tells me the author only spell checked the article and didn't bother to thoroughly proofread it.
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