Dad's Visit 2

Today, Dad and I visited the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.  This consisted of the Page Museum and surrounding area containing the tar pits themselves.  It was a wonderful day, so it was a great time to visit since we spent a lot of time walking around outside.  Besides the larger tar pits, there are small pits throughout the park that are fenced off with waist-high fences.  The first thing Dad and I saw was a woman plucking her child out of one of these enclosures after he fell in.  It was not particularly dangerous, but it was really funny.

The smaller pits had a lot of stuff thrown into them.  This was our first encounter.

Before exploring the park and larger pits, we went into the Page Museum.  The tar pits have claimed the lives of thousands of different animals, from small rodents to large mammoths.  The museum houses many full skeletons which had been excavated from the various tar pits, many of which were in beautiful condition since the tar preserved the bones.

The skull of an extinct Camel.

For many of the skeletons, an artistic rendition displayed the animal itself.

The Columbian Mammoth was particularly magnificent with his large twisting tusks and his substantial size.

I thought the curvature of his tusks was particularly interesting.

The next part of the museum had a display of the various birds trapped in the tar.  I thought it was clever how they included the artist rendition of the birds behind each specimen drawn in the same position as the skeleton was placed.

The museum itself had a number of interesting features.  For example, they had an area where they placed two polls into barbells of tar.  One of them was simply a straight bar, while the other had significantly more surface area; it is no surprise that it was almost impossible to pull the second out of the tar and the example really instills a fear of the tar itself, since it is more than willing to simply consume those creatures that are stupid enough to wander into the pits.  The museum also contained what they called a "Fishbowl laboratory."  This was an area where you could watch as the paleontologists cleaned up or worked on some of the fossils taken from the tar.

A paleontologist cleaning a bone taken from the tar.

A work station in the fishbowl with some bones and tools.

The tar bits have existed for tens of thousands of years, and consequently, they have consumed the lives of many animals (and a single human).  This means that it is not necessary to display every skeleton found.  For instance, there was a display with the skulls of nearly 400 Dire Wolfs, a minuscule portion of those found in the pits.  A portion of the museum had a window into a small storage area, filled with racks of sorted bones.

A single wall of storage, with a tray of bones sitting out.

At the center of the museum, was a small park-like area.  Though I am not sure what significance it holds in terms of the tar pits themselves, the area was beautiful with lovely green foliage and flowers.  In the water, there were a bunch of turtles and koi fish.

Some beautiful white flowers from the Atrium.

The atrium was beautiful, with clean water for the turtles and koi.

The park area outside the museum has a number of large tar pits, a couple of which are currently being excavated.  Project 23 is the current focus of the site, though we were unable to find a direct way to view this site.  However, Pit 91 consisted of a viewing station for the pit.

A overall view of Pit 91.  I want to point out a couple things.  One, notice the ladder in the lower right, yuck!  Also, the red flag is making the location of a Harlon's Ground Sloth Pelvis.

Here, the blue flag marks a Western Horse Radius, the flag below it (green) marks a Sabertooth Cat Scapula, and the yellow marks the location of a Dire Wolf Scapula.

Although it is fairly evil, the tar really could be beautiful.  There was one small pit that kept producing these beautiful bubbles.  I have some video of their quick creation and dissipation, if you would like to see them, send me an email or remind me when I see you next.

This one is so clear and amber colored, it is beautiful.

This time there are two bubbles!

As I mentioned above, we could not really see Project 23.  When we were walking past the area where we believed it was located, Dad pointed out that you could kind of see the start of results of some excavation in a tent towards the back.

Under the white tarp, you could sort of see the excavation product.  I also love this picture for the repetition of shape.

Besides the various tar pits, the area worked as a park as well, with flowers and other fun plants.

If you have never seen a bee pollinate a flower, it is a weird thing.

These plants were all over, and they have such a great texture and appearance.

A dew drop in the plant above.

This whole area of LA was filled with different museums.  Right next door was an art museum, and outside there were a bunch of sculptures.  Like usual, some of them were pretty silly and uninteresting (but fun to photograph) and others seemed very familiar.

Not the most exciting piece of art...

This seems very familiar, right?

Within the biggest tar pit - or the "Lake Pit" - the museum has set up a very tragic display of the terror of the tar pits in ancient times.  The despair is clear.

A large elephant-like creature being sucked into the pit...

... and on the shore the baby wails in terror.

It was a wonderful experience, and I would certainly recommend this museum to anyone visiting LA.  The one word of warning I would add, would be to avoid bringing young children: there were more than a couple that left the park tar smeared and filthy.