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La Brea Tar Pits
INTRO:
Located in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits offer an equally captivating visit for the sunny Southern California tourist and the studying scientist. One of the country's most renowned fossil sites, the seeping 'tar pits' preserved a vast number and variety of extinct Ice Age plants and animals incredibly well. There have been millions of specimens recovered and 660 species of organism found in all -- dating from 40,000 to 8000 years ago. More than 100 tons of fossil bones have been found in the area.
FOSSILS:
The La Brea Tar Pits feature one of the best conserved and studied assemblages of Pleistocene vertebrates in the world, including at least 59 species of mammal, over 135 species of bird, not to mention various plants, mollusks, insects and microfossils. One can visit the Page Museum and watch scientists - through a window - cleaning, examining and investigating fossils found in the pits. The collection is particularly well known for its thousands of fossilized wolves, saber-toothed cats and coyotes, but there are also such peculiar specimens as mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths and even camels. The black, bubbling liquid that originally caught animals up in its trap still flows to this day, though it is actually not the man-made substance 'tar' but asphalt, a form of crude oil.
ACTIVITIES:
The George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is home to a vast fossil collection of 3.5 million varied specimens. The museum offers tours, a view of an ongoing recovery of fossils, as well as a smattering of interesting sculptures, murals, films and recreations. They also have a wide array of educational opportunities for children. In the summer, the live excavation of 'Pit 91' can be watched from an observation spot at the dig through to the cleaning at the laboratory. Most of the pits are behind fences, but there are some speckled around the 23 acres of Hancock Park, not to mention the surrounding gardens and neighborhoods.
LODGING AND RESTAURANTS:
Naturally, there are hotels and restaurants galore in Los Angeles, just head north into Hollywood or West Hollywood. The Farmer's Daughter at 115 S. Fairfax is a good hotel less than a mile away if you want to stay close to the La Brea Tar Pits.
PLAN YOUR VISIT:
The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is open seven days a week, though closed on Independence Day (July 4), Thanksgiving, Christmas (December 25) and New Years Day (January 1). It is typically open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. An annual family membership costs $60.00 and includes unlimited free admission for two adults and four children. Otherwise admission cost is $7 for adults, $4.50 for teenagers and $2.00 for those 12 or under.
WHEN TO VISIT:
Through July and August, the excavations at 'Pit 91' allow guests to get closer to the pale ontological action than normal. During those summer months, the Pit 91 Visitors Observation Station in Hancock Park is open free to the public Wednesday through Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
How were the La Brea Tar Pits formed? Plankton was deposited at the bottom of an ocean basin that was on the spot millions of years ago. Time and pressure turned this into asphalt that has been seeping to the surface for about 40,000 years. Animals ever since have been getting stranded in the sticky oil, with their bones eventually becoming saturated with asphalt and fresh sediment.
Who found the La Brea Tar Pits? What became known as the La Brea Tar Pits were first recorded by white men in the diary of Father Juan Crespi, a Franciscan Friar traveling for the Spanish, in 1769. The Native Americans had used the asphalt as an adhesive before then. In 1875, the first scientific study of the fossils was undertaken by Professor William Denton of the Boston Society of Natural History.
Are there dinosaurs in the La Brea Tar Pits? The dinosaurs were actually 65 million years extinct by the time the entrapment record begins at La Brea, and since Los Angeles was under the ocean at the time of the dinosaurs, you will not find any fossilized dinosaurs there.
Are there any human deaths at the La Brea Tar Pits? Around 10 gallons of oil a day still ooze to the surface at La Brea, occasionally trapping all manner of animals. Lizards, birds, rodents, and even dogs and humans have been known to get stuck, especially in the summer when the asphalt is stickiest. So far though only one human skeleton has been removed fossilized from the area -- a woman who appears to have been murdered 10,000 years ago.
What are the directions to the La Brea Tar Pits? The La Brea Tar Pits are in Hancock Park just off Wilshire Boulevard between La Brea and Fairfax Avenues. From the I-10, exit at La Cienega/Fairfax, go north and turn right onto Wilshire, or exit at La Brea, go north and then left onto Wilshire. From the I-405, exit at Wilshire Boulevard and head east.
Where can I get more information and facts about the La Brea Tar Pits? Visit the Page Museum site(http://www.tarpits.org/) to learn about the La Brea Tar Pits.
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