Beneath Los Angeles Lies a 50,000-Year-Old Ice Age Time Capsule
Beneath the streets of Los Angeles lies one of the world's most remarkable Ice Age fossil sites. For tens of thousands of years, the La Brea Tar Pits have preserved an extraordinary record of prehistoric life, including saber-tooth cats, dire wolves, mammoths, mastodons, American lions, and ancient camels.
The site sits above an oil field where petroleum naturally migrates to the surface through fractures in the ground. These asphalt seeps trapped and preserved plants and animals over thousands of years, creating one of the largest and most diverse collections of Ice Age fossils ever discovered. Scientific excavations have been ongoing since 1906, with millions of specimens recovered from the site. More recently, excavations associated with nearby development projects have uncovered more than one million additional fossils, expanding a collection that continues to fuel new discoveries.
Today, excavations are carefully monitored by paleontologists, archaeologists, and Native American representatives to ensure that fossils and cultural resources are documented and recovered responsibly. The museum is scheduled to close on July 7 for a two-year renovation project, with fossils temporarily displayed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and a mobile museum continuing educational outreach. When it reopens as the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, visitors will be able to see millions of fossils and observe scientists at work in open laboratories as they study one of the most important windows into Ice Age life anywhere in the world.
The Museum at La Brea Tar Pits is temporarily closed for construction.
Many outdoor areas of Hancock Park remain open.
Learn more here: https://tarpits.org/
#LACityResidents
The site sits above an oil field where petroleum naturally migrates to the surface through fractures in the ground. These asphalt seeps trapped and preserved plants and animals over thousands of years, creating one of the largest and most diverse collections of Ice Age fossils ever discovered. Scientific excavations have been ongoing since 1906, with millions of specimens recovered from the site. More recently, excavations associated with nearby development projects have uncovered more than one million additional fossils, expanding a collection that continues to fuel new discoveries.
Today, excavations are carefully monitored by paleontologists, archaeologists, and Native American representatives to ensure that fossils and cultural resources are documented and recovered responsibly. The museum is scheduled to close on July 7 for a two-year renovation project, with fossils temporarily displayed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and a mobile museum continuing educational outreach. When it reopens as the Samuel Oschin Global Center for Ice Age Research, visitors will be able to see millions of fossils and observe scientists at work in open laboratories as they study one of the most important windows into Ice Age life anywhere in the world.
The Museum at La Brea Tar Pits is temporarily closed for construction.
Many outdoor areas of Hancock Park remain open.
Learn more here: https://tarpits.org/
#LACityResidents