La Brea Tar Pits Still Bubbling with History

Two of the biggest attractions in Los Angeles are the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits and Page Museum. A piece of prehistoric history still exists here. The museum is known throughout the world for housing the largest variety of fossils from the Ice Age. Their exhibits consist of extinct plants and animals that lived in the Los Angeles area up to 40,000 years ago. On the grounds of the museum are life sized reproductions of saber-toothed tigers and wooly mammoths.

Outside the museum, Pit 91 bubbles with tar as it did eons ago. Los Angeles sits upon fossilized prehistoric creatures trapped within the tar pits. You can view the paleontologists who continue to dig for fossils daily. Observation stations are located above the pit, so tourists can see bones from dire wolves, and saber-toothed tigers that perished there over 25,000 years ago.

Rancho La Brea is said to have recovered more than three million fossils, cleaning and preserving them. The fossils were removed from the tar where they were preserved for thousands of years. They are kept in perfect condition in the museum. Read about their most recent major fossil cache: Zed, the wooly mammoth.

The bones are usually various brown tones, stained from the tar. The condition of the fossils depends upon the time it originally took to bury the animals. The weather, water, and friction all affected the preservation. The quicker the animal was submerged in the asphalt, the better the condition of the fossil.

According to the Page museum, the bones at Rancho La Brea are in such good condition it is possible to see healed bone fractures, infections, and even arthritis. The fossils are cleaned by placing them in screened containers. They are then boiled in a cleaning solution to remove the tar. The result usually consists of stones, sand, bone fragments, and seeds. The fossils are sorted and identified by using magnified lenses. They are then preserved using a protective coating.

People's fascination with prehistoric artifacts makes the Page Museum and tar pits one of the most popular attractions in Los Angeles. Tourists can watch through the windows of the Paleontology Laboratory while the scientists restore the fossils and research the remains. There are also exhibits depicting how these huge animals became entrapped in the oily tar.

Christopher Shaw, collections manager and Pit 91 project coordinator at the Page Museum said, "Last year we collected more than 1,000 specimens in a two-month period, including three saber-toothed cat skulls, four dire wolf skulls, and bones from giant sloths, horses, bison, coyotes, birds, rodents and even some insects and plant fossils."

This incredible historic attraction is a far cry from the skyscrapers, movie theatres, and LA freeways. The tar pits will probably go on long after the city is here. No wonder it is one of the most visited attractions in Los Angeles.