Doll bones cover5/10/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() These treasures are proudly displayed in the Observation Pit, which will open for daily tours this summer after decades of closure. In the beginning, excavators focused on the obvious stuff: mastodon femurs the size of two-by-fours, saber-tooth fangs as long as daggers, a fearsome multitude of dire wolf skulls. The tar then engulfed and preserved the bones of its victims. Tar from the oilfield, also known as asphalt, leaked out through fissures in Earth’s crust, pooling at the surface where unsuspecting creatures strayed into its clutches. ![]() The riches of the Salt Lake Oilfield lie a few hundred feet below ground underneath the area bounded by Robertson and Vine, Wilshire and Beverly boulevards. When the first excavators swung their pickaxes into La Brea’s rocks more than 100 years ago, they found themselves in a desolate landscape populated only by a skeletal forest of oil derricks. They will also restart excavations in Pit 91, which has produced over a million specimens of ancient life since it opened in 1969. ![]() The Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits has reopened two shuttered excavation pits to the public that give a scientist’s-eye view of La Brea’s world-class fossil soup. And now, it’s a better time than ever to pay a visit. ![]()
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