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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."

16 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 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.
    2. 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. 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.

  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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
  10. 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.

  11. 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.