04.27.09
The Page Museum
Recently I realized that my camera is getting stuffed with old pictures, so thought I’d take a moment to share some before I wipe them off of my memory chip. These pictures are almost three weeks old now of our visit to the Page Museum just down the road from our home.
For those who may not be familiar with the Page Museum, according to their own website they are,
“one of the world’s most famous fossil sites. Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the La Brea Tar Pits is home to over three million fossils from the last Ice Age. It was here that huge mammoths, fierce sabertoothed cats, and giant ground sloths became trapped and entombed in the asphalt that has been seeping out of the ground for the past 40,000 years.”
Well, I don’t quite buy the idea that they’ve been around for 40,000 years since I’m a young-earth creationist, but I find this place interesting anyway. What prompted our recent visit is their recent find of skeletal remains under the LACMA parking lot. Actually I’ve lived in this area long enough to remember that this part of the LACMA used to be May Company. I’ve shopped there years ago and used to park my car in the area where they recently undug the new finds now known as Project 23. I think, IIRC, it was named that because they were able to dig up 23 crates of fossil remains, which are still being worked on today. Here’s a pic of some of the crates outside on the museum grounds.
Basically this area (Hancock Park and the general Rancho La Brea area) is loaded with tar pits where many years ago lots of animals got trapped in the tar and died. Thus today we are able to find their fossil remains still trapped and preserved in the tar. George C. Page, one of the richies in this area founded the Page Museum whereby all these fossils are now displayed and studied. Apparently scientist from all over the world come here when they want to study the Rancho La Brea fossils as this is the spot where they were all discovered. According to one of the ladies working on these fossil crates, none of these fossils are sold as they belong to all of us who reside in Los Angeles. Wow, I didn’t know I owned fossils, ha ha! But some of the fossils are sent abroad for study, but must be returned as they only go out on loan. This is what one of the crates looks like with all the fossils still embedded in the tar.
This is a block from project 81. Inside the museum is a discovery laboratory by which visitors can watch the workers cleaning the fossils. It’s known as the Fish Bowl Laboratory. Here’s a pic of one guy working on ZED, the recently dug up remains of a mammoth found right here in the La Brea Tar Pits. Funny to think how this animal may have run right through my house back then since this museum is within walking distance from our house, heheheh.
If you squint a little, you might notice my boys watching this guy in the background. Brian, Matty, and Aaron are behind the glass looking down at this guy working on one of the fossils.
Here’s another shot of more lab workers cleaning the recently found fossils.
I believe they were working on ZED’s vertebrae as noted on the chart.
A lot of bones and fossils are stored in this museum and cataloged. Here’s a pic of one of their storage units.
Here’s a display of one of the finds in the La Brea Tar Pits. It’s a mastadon, which I think looks similar to the recent find of ZED, which they are currently working on.
Here’s another display of an antique bison that was also found trapped in the tar.
I’ve been to this museum plenty of times, but somehow it just hit me on this visit that bison have “extra” ribs, ha! Well, they’re not really ribs as they are “above” the vetebra, but they sure would look like it on my plate. Amazing creatures!
There are thousands of animals that were apparently trapped and died in the La Brea Tar Pits. They have been working for years now cleaning and cataloging and assembling these finds. There are still open pits on the museum grounds where people can go just to watch the lab workers excavate the bones. I believe project 91 has recently been halted because of the new discovery of project 23. Among some of the older finds were hundreds of skeletal remains of dire wolves, which are currently displayed in the museum.
There are also saber-toothed lions, sloths, ancient horses, birds of all sorts and many other animals currently displayed. A nice little touch is a small section of what this area used to look like before these fossil remains were discovered (and before this area was developed with buildings and houses).
Evidently, this area was an oil field. Hmmm. I wonder if this is where the idea sprung from for the old TV sit com, Beverly Hill Billies? Anyway, we don’t see these oil rigs here anymore. It’s completely developed with buildings and homes. Along this street where the Page Museum is located are several other museums. Just outside of the Page is their display of some animals getting caught in the tar. This is a real tar pit, by the way, still bubbling and oozing with tar.
Wilshire Blvd. is just beyond the gate behind this display. The red thingy behind is a modern art sculpture that’s also been there for which seems forever, ha!
As usual, I did take a lot more pics, but I think there’s only so much to put up with on a small bloggy do. So for now, that’s it!
Marlakins
