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The La Brea Tar Pits
Oct. 17th, 2021 10:19 amPark La Brea
Saturday, 16 Oct 2021. 4pm.
After a late lunch today we visited The La Brea Tar Pits. They're just up the street from the LA County Museum of Art in LA's museum row neighborhood. At La Brea there's an outdoor exhibit that's free as well as an indoors museum that charges a fee. We were able to learn a lot just by walking around outside— and it was beautiful weather, too! Here are Five Things:
1) A repetitive name
La Brea is Spanish for the tar. So "The La Brea Tar Pits" translates to "The The Tar Tar Pits". Think that's funny? Look up how many deserts in the world are named "Desert Desert" by combining words in two languages.
2) Modern history, ancient history
This is an area where tar naturally bubbles to the surface from an oil deposit deep underground. In the late 1800s pits were dug here to mine tar and asphalt for construction. The first fossil was discovered in 1875. By 1900 many fossil digs were going on simultaneously. In 1915 the owners turned the land over to Los Angeles to become a geology park and museum.
The picture above was taken in 1915 showing workers digging to recover fossils from the open tar mine. In the background you can see oil derricks extracting the oil from deeper underground. Most of the pits have been filled back in, and the derricks have been removed.
3) Ice Age mammals and birds
When we say "fossils" a lot of people assume dinosaurs. Dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era, 66 million to 245 million years ago. The fossils found here are much younger, date to the last Ice Age 10,000 - 66,000 years ago. Species found include Mammoths, Sabertooth Tigers, Dire Wolves, and Ground Sloths.
BTW, ground sloths were HUGE!
4) Carnivore's Delight, Carnivore's Folly
Animals that entered into the pools of tar bubbling up to the surface often couldn't get out. It wasn't just creatures like birds that got a bit of tar on their wings then couldn't fly; huge ground mammals also got mired in the tar. Once an animal was stuck it became easy pickings for predator species. Many of these predators, though, got mired in the tar, too. That's why there's such an abundance of fossils in the area.
By the way, the art shown in the picture above is not 100% true-to-life. It's set on the edge of a small lake that appeared only ~100 years ago, after mining in the tar pits stopped. It's mostly water... but natural tar does bubble up in it. The tar pools of 10,000 years ago were still big enough to catch huge animals such as the mammoths depicted.
5) Tar is still coming up in many places at La Brea today.
Tar is still bubbling to the surface in many places at La Brea today. Small patches are marked with brightly colored traffic cones. ...Well, they were brightly colored until they got covered in tar! Several bigger patches are blocked off by fences, and in a few areas fossils are still being recovered from open mines that were not filled back in.
Saturday, 16 Oct 2021. 4pm.
After a late lunch today we visited The La Brea Tar Pits. They're just up the street from the LA County Museum of Art in LA's museum row neighborhood. At La Brea there's an outdoor exhibit that's free as well as an indoors museum that charges a fee. We were able to learn a lot just by walking around outside— and it was beautiful weather, too! Here are Five Things:
1) A repetitive name
La Brea is Spanish for the tar. So "The La Brea Tar Pits" translates to "The The Tar Tar Pits". Think that's funny? Look up how many deserts in the world are named "Desert Desert" by combining words in two languages.
2) Modern history, ancient history
This is an area where tar naturally bubbles to the surface from an oil deposit deep underground. In the late 1800s pits were dug here to mine tar and asphalt for construction. The first fossil was discovered in 1875. By 1900 many fossil digs were going on simultaneously. In 1915 the owners turned the land over to Los Angeles to become a geology park and museum.
The picture above was taken in 1915 showing workers digging to recover fossils from the open tar mine. In the background you can see oil derricks extracting the oil from deeper underground. Most of the pits have been filled back in, and the derricks have been removed.
3) Ice Age mammals and birds
When we say "fossils" a lot of people assume dinosaurs. Dinosaurs lived during the Mesozoic Era, 66 million to 245 million years ago. The fossils found here are much younger, date to the last Ice Age 10,000 - 66,000 years ago. Species found include Mammoths, Sabertooth Tigers, Dire Wolves, and Ground Sloths.
BTW, ground sloths were HUGE!
4) Carnivore's Delight, Carnivore's Folly
Animals that entered into the pools of tar bubbling up to the surface often couldn't get out. It wasn't just creatures like birds that got a bit of tar on their wings then couldn't fly; huge ground mammals also got mired in the tar. Once an animal was stuck it became easy pickings for predator species. Many of these predators, though, got mired in the tar, too. That's why there's such an abundance of fossils in the area.
By the way, the art shown in the picture above is not 100% true-to-life. It's set on the edge of a small lake that appeared only ~100 years ago, after mining in the tar pits stopped. It's mostly water... but natural tar does bubble up in it. The tar pools of 10,000 years ago were still big enough to catch huge animals such as the mammoths depicted.
5) Tar is still coming up in many places at La Brea today.
Tar is still bubbling to the surface in many places at La Brea today. Small patches are marked with brightly colored traffic cones. ...Well, they were brightly colored until they got covered in tar! Several bigger patches are blocked off by fences, and in a few areas fossils are still being recovered from open mines that were not filled back in.
