Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Columbian Mammoth


After breakfast this morning I went over to The George C. Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park on Wilshire Blvd. I have seen the tar pits before, but not the museum. Really interesting exhibits of prehistoric animal skeletons, as well as stories of how the area developed. It was particularly interesting to read about the history Hancock Park, and how it went from farmland to an oil field to its present state as a city park. One of the strange things about the park is that because of all the asphalt underneath (which is what causes the "tar pits") from time to time,"seeps" of black asphalt develop in middle of the lawn of the park! Workers just put a cone over the seep, and you try not to walk in the gooey black substance! This Mammoth was common in this area, and this skeleton was dug from one of the tar pits on the property, the bones cleaned of the "tar" and the skeleton assembled in the museum.

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