LA BREA MEANS TAR IN SPANISH

For Mother's Day weekend Sarah and I loaded the kids up into the Astro Van (which just a few days prior had received a new set of tires, an oil change and $75 in gas) and set a course for the La Brea Tar Pits in downtown Los Angeles. Sarah had fond memories of field trips to the tar pits when she was in elementary school and has been wanting to take the kids there for a long time. I'm glad she pushed for it. It was awesome! For those of you don't know anything about the La Brea Tar Pits they are a place where asphalt naturally follows fissures and faults eventually bubbling to the surface in downtown Los Angeles. It is quite literally downtown- between little Ethiopia and Beverly Hills. During the last ice age the tar pits represented a death trap of epic proportions for all sort of animals- and the museum is dedicated to displaying the perfectly preserved bones of such creatures as the American lion, the American camel, the prehistoric horse, sabre tooth cat, ground sloth, mastodon, long-horned bison, etc... Many of the fossils belonged to creatures that are long-extinct (and also lots that are still around today like coyotes, rabbits, raccoons, etc...) and I really enjoyed visualizing herds of mastodons and camels plodding along through the grasslands of Southern California while a pride of American Lions looked on, and ice age hunters with spears in hand moved along the tops of a ridge following the herds and keeping a wary eye out for Sabretooth cats. I also learned that only set of human remains has ever been found in the pits- a woman (an apparent homicide victim) who most likely belonged to an ice age tribe known as the channel island indians (they determined that based on the shape of her skull which had been shattered as a result of blunt force trauma).

I was genuinely impressed by the exhibits and also by the size of some of those animals. The whole experience was mind blowing actually. Expansive. If you ever have an opportunity to take in the pits I highly recommend it.

As we stepped out of the van and were getting the kids together before crossing the parking lot, Sarah said "Do you smell that? It smells exactly like someone's paving a road." I had smelled the same asphalt smell, but I had reasonably assumed that somewhere nearby a crew was, in fact, repaving a road. When she said that though I suddenly became aware of what she already knew- what I was smelling were the tar pits themselves.

For a long time the asphalt was quarried here and this large pond is the result. The pond is constantly bubbling like a cauldron (although it is not hot) as a result of the methane gas escaping from below. Everything surrounding the pond is spattered with asphalt from the bubbles violently emerging at the surface and throwing tar everywhere.

The tar also seems to seep out wherever else it pleases. Some of the seeps have been cordoned off with these little gates which pepper the grassy areas surrounding the pits.

But we found dozens of other places where the asphalt was just bubbling out at the base of a tree, or under a fence, or right smack dab in the middle of a grassy area. If you had walked up to the seeping tar as I did you could have actually watched it bubbling up and trickling out. It must be under pressure. It was fascinating to me for some reason. Perfect, black, shiny asphalt just spilling out of the ground like as if Jed Clampett had just recently happened by shootin' up some food.

The most stimulating part about the pits was the museum where the bones of ice age animals were on display. Check out that Colombian Mastodon's huge curving tusks.

I asked Lucy to take this picture of me in front of the American Lion's skeleton. This killing machine was bigger than today's African Lion and for that matter any feline alive today. Have you ever seen when a cat gets really wet and they suddenly look way smaller than they seem when their fur is all fluffy. I kept thinking about that while I was looking at this lion's skeleton- add muscle, flesh and fur and it would have been more than just a little imposing. That was big cat. Yikes!

Once again I would like to state on the record that I am not sad the cave bear is extinct.

One of the interesting facts I learned about the tar pits (and there were many) is that over 90% of the fossils recovered are of predators and scavengers. When an animal got stuck and died in the pits other creatures would come from everywhere to take advantage of the free meal and they would inevitably get stuck themselves. Here Sarah is standing next to one of the extinct species of condor that is on display. They had lots of vulture-like birds that they had found in the pits.

Some of them were startlingly big.

The sabretooth cat atop the ground sloth in the background would, every once in a while, spasmadically dig its fangs into the sloth's back, but it was broken or something and it didn't look as cool as its designers had undoubtedly intended. It looked more like they were nuzzling or something. I could just imagine the sloth saying, "Oh you!" as the sabretooth tickled him behind the ear.

This was interesting to me. The most common species of animal found in the pits are Dire Wolves. In fact, the remains of approimately 3000 of the now extinct wolf species have been removed from the pits. Here is a wall display containing 404 of their skulls. Scientists theorize that, in addition to getting mired in the tar while scavenging, they may have also chased prey into the tar inadevertantly sealing their own doom. Entire packs have been found entombed together.

Dire wolves.

No wonder they're extinct, eh?

This is a picture of an active excavation site. We got there too late to actually see them working, but there was a viewing platform where we could look down where they work. They had flags where the bones were, but they don't show up very well in the photo.

This woman was working on removing an animal from a chunk of hardened asphalt. I asked her what it was and she said it was an american camel. You can kind of see it, can't you?

They also had an atrium in the center of the museum with a turtle pond. The kids loved the turtles, which even I found refreshing after so many dead animals.

"Oh you!"

Don't look at Jack's outfit too long. It might give you a seizure.

Miles tried to catch a bird.

Almost.

So close.

C'mon!!!