Resource World Magazine

62 www.resourceworld.com F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 5 OIL & g A s It's not often geological wonders are found in the heart of a major city. Yet, that is the case for the La Brea Tar Pits in West Los Angeles, California. Situated right beside the busy thoroughfare of Wilshire Blvd, the tar pits or pools, (actually asphalt), are still bubbling away and paleontologists are busy digging up fossils of at least 59 different species of now extinct animals. These include saber-tooth cats, mammoths, giant sloths the size of cars, birds and other creatures you have never heard of that were trapped in either the pools or shallow seeps of asphalt. Back in the early 20th century, the location was an asphalt mining site. The asphalt was used for fuel and as a preservative for pipes and railroad ties. This was followed by oil production when the Rancho La Brea Oil Company brought 71 wells into production. Around the time that the family of Major Henry Hancock consolidated ownership of the area in 1875, the first geologist/ paleontologist to note that the animal remains were fossils was Professor William Denton. It took some time but eventually the importance of the fossils was recognized and they were col- lected and organized. To date, over a million mammal fossils have been recovered. Today, as one strolls through Hancock Park, several bub- bling pools of asphalt can be seen where animal fossils are being recovered by paleontologists. Their remains are then transported to the nearby George C. Page Museum where their skeletons are reassembled. The paleontologists work in a large glass labora- tory, in the museum, where tourists can view them working on specimens ranging in size from tiny insects right up to gigan- tic mammoths. Some of the museum's exhibits are animatronic, robot creatures that move; the most impressive being a saber- tooth cat attacking a giant sloth. Both Hancock Park and the Page Museum are popular destinations for school children. For more information, go to www.tarpits.org. The Hancock Park and the tar pits are free to visit. Admission to the Page Museum is $12 for adults, $9 for seniors and students, $5 for children 3-12 and free for those two years and younger. La Brea is only one of five known tar pits in the world. If you are visiting Disneyland or Los Angeles, La Brea would make a most unusual and fascinating side trip. n Former oilfield now a park and museum Bubbling La Brea Tar Pits continue to yield thousands of extinct animals by Ellsworth Dickson Animatronic reconstructions of a saber-tooth cat attacking a giant sloth the size of a Volkswagon. Fiberglass reconstructions of Columbian mammoths at the Lake Pit in Hancock Park. Photos by Ellsworth Dickson. More photos at www.resourceworld.com

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