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Major Cache of Fossils Unearthed In Los Angeles

Posted by kdawson on from the sticky-underfoot dept.

aedmunde sends along news from the LA Times: "A nearly intact mammoth, dubbed Zed, is among the remarkable discoveries near the La Brea Tar Pits. It's the largest known deposit of Pleistocene ice age fossils... in what might seem to be the unlikeliest of places — under an old May Co. parking lot in L.A.'s tony Miracle Mile shopping district. ...huge chunks of soil from the site have been removed intact and now sit in large wooden crates on the back lot... The 23 crates range... from the size of a desk to that of a small delivery truck... There were, in fact, 16 separate deposits on the site, an amount that, by her estimate, would have taken 20 years to excavate conventionally. ... Carefully identifying the edges of each deposit, her team dug trenches around them and underneath, isolating the deposits on dirt pedestals. After wrapping heavy plastic around the deposits, workers built wooden crates similar to tree boxes and lifted them out individually with a heavy crane. The biggest one weighed 123,000 pounds."

27 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. Not politically correct. by iYk6 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They are called, "old people", and yes, there are a lot of them in L.A.

    1. Re:Not politically correct. by Puffy+Director+Pants · · Score: 2, Funny

      Not any more. Anybody in Los Angeles that looks to old is sent to the "Valley" where they're happier and the rest of the city doesn't have to look at them, or risk them being seen on TV.

    2. Re:Not politically correct. by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 2, Funny

      I live in the Valley.....*sob*

    3. Re:Not politically correct. by chill · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then we're going to have to ask you to turn in your webcam.

      --
      Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
    4. Re:Not politically correct. by Mr.+Conrad · · Score: 5, Funny

      They better have evidence to backup their claims, as they're going against conventional wisdom. Everyone knows that the largest deposit of fossils is in Naples, Florida.

  2. Wow by hiojay · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, that's a mammoth of a find.

  3. Who's Zed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Zed's dead baby, zed's dead.

  4. Not unlikely at all by heretic108 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The fossils were found under a parking lot.

    Obvious really - Thag and his wife Urga came back from the show to find their trusty mammoth leg-clamped for over-parking. They couldn't afford the unclamping fee, so had to walk home. The rest is history.

    --
    -- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
  5. doh! by djupedal · · Score: 5, Funny

    > "in what might seem to be the unlikeliest of places..."

    Hey, Marge! I found fossils in a known tar pit - who would have guessed.....!!

  6. ObFuturama by Chris+Tucker · · Score: 2, Funny

    (Leela and Fry are in the Planet Express ship, trapped deep in the La Brea tar pits! Seeking any means of escape from Certain Doom, Leela scans the endless depths of their petroleum prison...)

    [Leela looks at a scanner.]

                                                                              LEELA
                                                      It's some kind of hollow tube, devoid
                                                      of human life. The Los Angeles subway!
                                                      We can blast our way in and escape!

    --
    Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
  7. Confusing by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Funny

    from the size of a desk to that of a small delivery truck

    For those of you who prefer more conventional measurement units, that's between 0.35 and 2.5 volkswagens.

    --
    Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
    1. Re:Confusing by argStyopa · · Score: 5, Funny

      I am so sick of every thread turning into some goddamn crusade for the metric system.

      Look, people, this was in the US, so we're simply going to use the imperial system (.08 to 0.6 Chrysler Imperials).

      --
      -Styopa
    2. Re:Confusing by genner · · Score: 3, Funny

      I am so sick of every thread turning into some goddamn crusade for the metric system.

      Look, people, this was in the US, so we're simply going to use the imperial system (.08 to 0.6 Chrysler Imperials).

      My car gets 40 rods to the hog's head and that's the way I like it.

  8. Fossils in LA: Susan Saradon??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Was Susan Saradon among those fossils unearthed?
    How about her son, Tim Robbins?

  9. Re:Multiple redundancy by Killer+Orca · · Score: 2, Funny

    Just in case anybody cares, "La Brea" is Spanish for "the Tar," so "The La Brea Tar Pits" translates into "The The Tar Tar Pits."

    Don't you mean The Tar the Tar Pits?

  10. Re:Multiple redundancy by clarkkent09 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mmmm, tartar pits..... picks up a fried fish finger

    --
    Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
  11. Re:Multiple redundancy by Chris+Tucker · · Score: 2, Funny

    Tar Tar Pits. He's going to be a character in the Clone Wars series.

    Search your feelings! You KNOW it to be true!

    --
    Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
  12. TAR PITS! by n6kuy · · Score: 2, Funny

    (Pico and Sepulveda...)
    (Pico and Sepulveda...)
    Doheney...
    Cahuenga...
    La Brea...
    TAR PITS!

    --
    If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
  13. old dead things by DavoMan · · Score: 3, Funny

    Have they found the MPAA's business model yet?
    ziiing! ;)

    --
    Whats the harm in yelling 'Computer, end program!'? You could be living in Star Trek! Go on.. give it a try.
  14. For those asking for metric... by PhilHibbs · · Score: 5, Funny

    This story is tagged "metricplease", but they didn't have the metric system in the mesozoic era. Sheesh.

    1. Re:For those asking for metric... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 4, Funny

      This story is tagged "metricplease", but they didn't have the metric system in the mesozoic era. Sheesh.

      They almost did!

      In SE Asia they found a fossilized homo erectus, and in its hand it was holding a stone rod which was divided by carved grooves into ten equal sections, which were each then subdivided by smaller grooves into ten sections. Embedded in the specimen's skull was another rod, which was divided into twelve sections, with sixteen subdivisions.

      Thus we have evidence of the oldest known metric vs imperial argument, and its resolution. While anthropologists do not know the identity of the assailant who doomed the entire pleistocene to imperial measurements, it is assumed they were an early form of Yankee.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  15. Re:Multiple redundancy by laejoh · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's why there is the -z option, so that you can include gzip compression.

  16. Re:123,000 pounds in modern money? by repvik · · Score: 2, Funny

    Aircraft carriers are measured in ounces.

  17. Re:Flintstone by Keeper+Of+Keys · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've only ever been able to manage a partial mammoth.

    Sorry, I'll get my skins.

  18. 10000 years from now by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 3, Funny

    Future archaeologists are going to be confused when they find all these dinosaurs buried in Hollywood. I predict that museums by then will have huge wax models of Will Smith riding a triceratops.

  19. Award Winner by zaivala · · Score: 2, Funny

    This post has unanimously been awarded the English Language Institute's New Adjective Award, for "best use of 'tony' as an adjective."

  20. Re:DUH by PDX · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just woke up from a dirt nap to find myself dangling in the air from a crane!
    What would only make this intolerable to my soul, would be to have steel rods rammed into me to prop me upright for all eternity.