On the way, we passed the "Variety" building.
And this section of L.A. is known as the "Miracle Mile," lots of museums are in the area. This, we assume, is some sort of artistic display...
I'm standing in front of hundreds of street lamps.
We walked along a little further and came upon this:
We paid the admission to the Tar Pits Museum, and immediately saw fossils that had been pulled from the tar, or asphalt over the years.
To say it was impressive would be an understatement. We were amazed at what we learned in there.
Amazing facts from the Tar Pits:
1. The pits did not exist in dinosaur times. They were formed several centuries later.
2. Over 100,000 complete mammal fossils have been pulled from the various tar pits.
3. Right now, pit #91 is being carefully excavated. That means there are 91 tar pits in the area.
4. The most common fossil found is that of the wolf. Over 1,600 wolf fossils have been recovered, and the photo below is a wall displaying about 420 wolf skulls:
5. Extinct animals such as the saber tooth cat, the American Lion, the Cypress, and the mammoth have been excavated from the pits. Below is a picture of a saber tooth cat (not tiger) and an American Lion:
6. Bison as well as sloths were pulled from the tar pits. And they were the SAME SIZE....so the sloth on Ice Age wasn't exactly drawn to SCALE!!!
The sloth is the one on the right:
On the left is a Cypress, and in the middle is a mammoth.
The middle of the museum exhibit was called the "fishbowl," it's where volunteers and scientists are working on fossils behind large glass windows.
There are two movie theaters, showing documentaries about the pits and the work the museum does. One movie that we watched explained why so many mammals were found in big clumps together.
In their research, they've learned that a large mammal (like a mammoth) would be walking along and suddenly get stuck in the tar pit. Not like quick-sand, it was more like fly paper. They wouldn't sink right away. They'd be stuck, though, and eventually they'd become distressed because they were starving to death.
Predators (like the wolves) would hear this disturbance and start circling to get themselves some dinner. Then they'd move in on their prey, and get stuck. A whole pack! Well then the other predators and scavengers would come around, to take advantage of the opportunity. And they'd get stuck too.
And the whole lot of them would sink slowly, dying together.
When researchers pull out a big chunk of asphalt (solidified tar) the bones are jumbled together, belonging to several different animals.
They clean the fossils, reassemble, and either put them on display at their museum or sell them to museums all over the world. The tar pits make such an amber color on the fossils, you can identify one that came from L.A. by the color of the bones. You could be in a museum in London or Tokyo, see a dark-colored fossil, and know that it came from the LaBrea Tar Pits.
