A Learning Link to the Page Museum

Did you know that Los Angeles has one of the richest Ice Age fossil sites in the world? That's because of huge "tar" pits located west of downtown Los Angeles that trapped plants and animals between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago. The pits preserved the bones, teeth and other remains for us to see today. The site where all this can be found is called the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.

The "tar" at La Brea is really a substance called asphalt. It lies deep in the Earth's crust. Heat and pressure force the asphalt to the Earth's surface through cracks. This process is still going on today.

In prehistoric times, summer's heat would warm the asphalt into a gooey liquid. The liquid would be hidden by a layer of dust and fallen leaves. Pools of water would build up over the leaves. Unsuspecting animals would wander into the pools to drink the water, and become trapped in the asphalt and die. The asphalt kept their bones and other parts from decaying, leaving them practically unchanged. They are perhaps the most perfect fossils in the world.

La Brea's fossils range in size from giant mammoth skeletons to the remains of tiny plants that can only be seen by a microscope. Probably the most popular animal remains at the Page Museum are those of the saber-toothed cat (Smilodon californicus)--California's official state fossil. Bones from almost 2,000 of these cats have been recovered from the tar pits.

Saber-toothed cats were about the same size as the modern African lion. They had very powerful limbs and could run about 25 to 30 mph but only in short bursts. They had large upper canine teeth that were probably used to attack prey.

To find out more about fossils, look for these books at your local library or bookstore: "Wild and Woolly Mammoths" by Aliki and "The La Brea Story" by Gretchen Sibley.

The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits is located on Museum Row, at 5801 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, call (323) 934-7243 or visit its Web site at http://www.tarpits.org. This information was provided courtesy of the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits.