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.
GGG ping
Can we get gasoiline from it first?........
I wonder what archaeologists will find in the same spot 1 million years from now.
An archaeologist.......
Well archaeologists might undertake excavations at the tar pits in the future but paleontologists are the folks working there now.
Archaeologists study humans and human related activity.
Paleontologists study plant and animal fossils.
Sounds like some brew a certain liberal witch could concoct.
...another pit related accident ;)
When I was a kid, up until I was 8 years old, we lived in Bell Gardens and one of the neatest things to do was to visit the La Brea tar pits. Schools used to do it as a field trip, that and the harbor. I used to love looking at the big gooey mess, don't know why but it always seemed really great!
Because kids love gooey messes, the bigger and gooey-er the better :)
Well then I unwittingly used the correct term, since I was referring to what sort of human stuff they might find.
Absolutely correct. Archaeologists might be very interested in that area hundreds of years from now. But with a single exception, currently the site is of interest primarily to paleontologists.
I didn't mean to bust your chops. As a former professional archaeologist, I'm a little sensitive to the whole "hey, you looking for dinosaurs ?' thing hahaha.
Play the "Ice Age" movie. Loved it!
"As a former professional archaeologist, I'm a little sensitive to the whole "hey, you looking for dinosaurs ?"
On my last visit to the La Brea Tar Pits, they had a prominant sign at the front desk that said something like, "NO DINOSAURS WERE FOUND IN THE TAR PITS"
The guy at the counter said he still gets the dinosaur question over and over every day.
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Interesting. I should go see it.
Thanks for the post and ping.
As a former professional archaeologist, I'm a little sensitive to the whole "hey, you looking for dinosaurs ?' thing hahaha.So that's what made you give it up, eh? ;')
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