La Brea Tar Pits

La Brea Tar Pits (Spanish: La Brea "bad luck" / English tar pits " tar pits " ), also Rancho La Brea Tar Pits, is a collection filled with natural asphalt pits of different sizes in Hancock Park in the midst of major U.S. city of Los Angeles. You are eponymous for the La Brea Avenue.

The asphaltene-rich sediments of Rancho La Brea are known as one of the richest in fossils sites from the Pleistocene or Ice Age. This place is a concentrate reservoir in which a complete ecosystem from the period 40000-10000 years ago has been preserved. In particular, the mammals are represented by over 60 species - from almost four meters high "Imperial mammoth " (Mammuthus imperator, today counted the prairie mammoth ) to the California pocket mouse - but also birds like the Yellow -billed Magpie, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mollusks, arthropods, numerous plants and their pollen and seeds.

The natural asphalt, also known as mineral pitch or Bergteer, comes from large underground deposits in the Los Angeles basin. It was used by the first European settlers in this area. The fossils found here were mistaken for the bones of cattle.

Among the most spectacular finds mammoths, saber-toothed cats and up to 1.8 meters are long, ground-dwelling giant sloth Paramylodon harlani. Overall, it has so far recovered 100 tons of fossils, 1.5 million and 2.5 million bone remains from the tar pits.

Paläofauna

But from the saber-toothed cat Smilodon fatalis, the State Fossil of the U.S. state of California, it has been discovered 166,000 bones. This makes it the second most common mammal and the most famous fossil of Rancho La Brea. It went over a period of 25,000 years, at least 2,500 saber-toothed cats in this natural event. At least 5,000 bone fragments thereby show disease characteristics, ranging up to broken spines and deformed bones. Many of the damaged bone also show characteristics of healing processes, although the animals were restricted in their ability to move and could therefore only limited hunt. This has been interpreted as evidence that Smilodon lived today like the lion in social organizations. An alternative theory explains the large number of saber-toothed cats instead so that they have been lured by the captive animals in the tar. In addition to the lions large Smilodon bones are also other big cats - American lion, cougar, bobcat and Jaguar - handed down in the asphalt. One of the most common birds of the deposit is the Yellow -billed Magpie ( Pica nuttalli ).

The George C. Page Museum

The La Brea Tar Pits accommodate the George C. Page Museum ( Curator: Dr. John Harris) and are very easy accessible for tourists, as they lie in the city of Los Angeles in the middle. The George C. Page Museum is a popular destination for school groups. A special attraction at the museum is the " fishbowl " ( " fishbowl " ) - the paleontological laboratory of the Museum. Museum visitors can watch scientists and volunteers in their work.

In the laboratory, the fossils are cleaned and polished. Some employees are dedicated to a very time-consuming process, the Order of microfossils with the aid of a magnifying glass. In the sediment from the excavations can be found microfossils, such as an insect (or parts of insects), plants, seeds, shells, small bone particles (eg the smallest parts of the bone marrow ), and other interesting and fascinating microfossils such as salamanders shed, teeth of mice and much more. The laboratory is headed by Shelley Cox - she was already working at the Tar Pits, before the museum was established with the generous donation of George C. Page. Before the museum was built, was just a container on site, where work began in a small space. Shelley Cox ( laboratory) and Christopher Shaw ( Collection Manager) both came as a young student at the Tar Pits and worked on a voluntary basis, before they were employees. Volunteers / interns are for the Museum of essential importance - each year the contributions of volunteers are rewarded with a great celebration and volunteers are honored for excellent performance.

Pit 91

Mine 91 ( "Pit 91 " ) is one of many asphalt pits on the grounds of the museum. Pit 91 is currently the only active excavation site of the museum. Every summer excavations carried out for a period of two months. Museum and park visitors, it is possible to follow the excavation of a viewing platform.