Major Cache of Fossils Unearthed In Los Angeles

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."

Comments

Not politically correct.

[iYk6]

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

Re:Not politically correct.

[Puffy Director Pants]

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.

Re:Not politically correct.

[MaskedSlacker]

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

Re:Not politically correct.

[chill]

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

Re:Not politically correct.

[Mr. Conrad]

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.

Wow

[hiojay]

Wow, that's a mammoth of a find.

Who's Zed?

[Anonymous Coward]

Zed's dead baby, zed's dead.

Re:Who's Zed?

[d3m0nCr4t]

I take it you've never seen Pulp Fiction?

Not unlikely at all

[heretic108]

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.

doh!

[djupedal]

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

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

ObFuturama

[Chris Tucker]

(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!

Re:Flintstone

[spineboy]

They've found COMPLETE frozen wooly mammoths in the Artic tundra in Russia, complete with hair and all
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/03/0324_050324_mammoth.html
So while this find is quite nice, it's by no means the best ever.

Confusing

[clarkkent09]

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.

Re:Confusing

[argStyopa]

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).

Re:Confusing

[genner]

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.

Multiple redundancy

[techno-vampire]

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."

Re:Multiple redundancy

[Killer Orca]

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?

Re:Multiple redundancy

[clarkkent09]

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

Re:Multiple redundancy

[Chris Tucker]

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

Search your feelings! You KNOW it to be true!

Re:Multiple redundancy

[laejoh]

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

Re:Multiple redundancy

[operagost]

I don't even care anymore, being accustomed to "Personal Identification Number Number", "Automated Teller Machine Machine", "Network Interface Card Card", "With With Juice", and "Grilled Roasted Meat Steak"*.

Also, "The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" translates to "The The Angels Angels of Anaheim".

* Taco Bell used to advertise their "carne asada" taco as "grilled carne asada steak."

TAR PITS!

[n6kuy]

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

Re:10 000 - 40 000 years old fossils?

[schnikies79]

Way to re-hash the same 'ole shit over, and over, and over. It wasn't funny a year ago, It's not funny now. Yes people think that way, everyone here knows that. You know what? The only ones I hear bringing it up every discussion I read is you guys making fun of it. The people that actually believe talk about it less.

It's off-topic and it's annoying.

old dead things

[DavoMan]

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

For those asking for metric...

[PhilHibbs]

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

Re:For those asking for metric...

[Chris Burke]

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 pope?

[Moraelin]

Especially if it involves the Pope, Texas, and a midget or two.

I seriously don't see the link between the Pope and US puritan nuts. Or between the pope and the young-earth idiocy for that matter.

If you look as far as back as St Augustine Of Hippo, he wrote in no uncertain terms that only an idiot would take the Genesis literally. "It is too disgraceful and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally in error they are." That's pretty much a thorough flaming of that point of view. He got sanctified by the catholic church, btw.

Plus, whatever bigotry the catholics might have had against science, were gone in the counter-reformation. (They had to try to stop losing ground to the protestants _somehow_.) The Society Of Jesus for example, is pretty much a scientific order sponsored by the Vatican. Those guys operate research labs and universities. And yes, they teach evolution and the big bang.

Also let's remember that the Vatican, including the current pope, btw, has officially proclaimed Darwinism as correct. So you won't find _them_ arguing that dinosaur fossils were placed there to test your faith.

Now I'm not saying the catholics are without fault. But ffs, blame them for their real faults, not for bullshit strawmen. Lumping them together with the young-earthers just shows massive ignorance. Blaming it on the pope is like blaming the fall of Byzantium on the emperor of China. That freaking stupid.

It seems to me like some people aren't in it even for the science-vs-religion parts, but just because they're cretin trolls seeking to annoy someone, anyone for attention.

Re:The pope?

[R2.0]

It's appropriate you mention the Reformation and Counter Reformation. One of Martin Luther's big peeves was the fact that the Church didn't want average people to read the bible, because it created too much dependence of the local priests, and was inevitably abused. The Church's stated reason was that the bible had to be interpreted by experts so that the laity didn't get confused by the Bible's complexity.

Fast forward a few hundred years - Luther's spiritual descendants (some of them anyway) are doing EXACTLY what the Church said they would do.

Re:The pope?

[Asic Eng]

The "loony left" in this case includes noted left wingers like John McCain and Giuliani , chairmen of oil companies, just about every government of the first world, the vast majority of published climate scientists ...

123,000 pounds in modern money?

[fantomas]

What's that in less historic money? ;-)

interesting - do you guys over the pond use tons for big numbers or do you stick to pounds all the way up? Curious about the expression "123,000 pounds" - isn't that something like 100 tons or so? (he says plucking a figure out the air and being lazy ;-) )

Here we'd say kg for small numbers, but once we'd got to a thousand we'd shift to (metric) tons, e.g. "over 123 tons" not "over 123,000 kg". Or is that domain specific? do some things get measured in pounds all the way up, but others you shift into talking about tons? What do you measure aircraft carriers etc in? millions of pounds?

Great news though on the main topic, it will keep some university researchers happily employed for a good while!

Re:123,000 pounds in modern money?

[repvik]

Aircraft carriers are measured in ounces.

Re:123,000 pounds in modern money?

[Teun]

You got a point.

But the explanation is rather mundane, lets take some hypothetical super tanker accident.

The oil company will claim less than ten thousand tons of oil might have leaked away.
The clean up company will report about fifty five thousand barrels of oil to collect and Green Peace will talk about a disaster involving over twelve million litres of crude oil polluting the environment.

Not fossils - bones!

[benwiggy]

I was shown around the crates late last year. They are not fossils - they are bones that have been preserved by the tar. They have not undergone transformation in sedimentary rock.
I also gave the tar a good poking with a stick. It's easy to see how large four-legged animals would get stuck in it.
The museum also has a huge collection of sabre-tooth tigers - who thought all the stuck prey would be an easy catch....

Re:Not fossils - bones!

[Toad-san]

Good point. NOT fossils. Chemically preserved.

There are also questions about exactly what happened at those "tar pits". Ye Olde Idea of critters getting stuck in the tar (maybe beneath a watering hole), predators coming and getting stuck, etc. has been severely questioned. Mainly because of a real lack of complete skeletons, many bones found at the bottom of very narrowly necked holes, etc. And WAY too many predators (and very few birds, especially vulture types).

Interesting place, but the entire concept needs some serious examination.

Re:Flintstone

[Keeper Of Keys]

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

Sorry, I'll get my skins.

Hrm, this reads like a "new" find

[BLKMGK]

but the article says they took over 3 months to unearth them TWO YEARS ago. Kind of took a little excitement out of it to get nearly through the whole article to find out this all took place years ago. Would have been nice to have more pictures of the process and maybe an explanation as to how they found the edges of the deposits - ground penetrating radar maybe?

Re:Hrm, this reads like a "new" find

[benwiggy]

They moved the earth out of the building site two years ago. It's taken them two years to go through enough of it to make a worthwhile announcement.
There's still loads of it left that they haven't got round to yet.

Tsk. Kids today, they want their archaeologic research done at broadband speeds.

Re:Hrm, this reads like a "new" find

[benwiggy]

Well, IANAA, but they knew there would be "stuff", given the location. Certainly, some prior analysis was done. But when I saw the crates in December, they were still excited about what they might find. They didn't say "we're looking forward to digging out the dire-wolves in crate 12".
Various bones are often tightly packed together with bones from other creatures and other matter, so until you actually remove the matrix and separate the bones, you don't know what you've got. But obviously, when part of a mammoth skull starts to be revealed, then you'll spot it immediately.
If a scientific paper was published, would you say "Old news. They've been working on it for years!"?

Re:Hrm, this reads like a "new" find

[ChrisA90278]

as to how they found the edges of the deposits - ground penetrating radar maybe?

Much of the area around there is just plain out dirt. The tar is in large pockets. They likely dug out the dirt. The tarpits are now surouned by a nice grass covered park. The tar is only in places where crude oil bubbles up through small cracks

The entire area at one time was an oil feild. It was such an obvious place to drill because the oil was visible at the surface. So it was drilled and pumped out in the eraly 20th century, mostly. There are a few operating wells around still.

Re:Hrm, this reads like a "new" find

[javajedi]

Lots more info here: http://excavatrix.blogspot.com/

Re:Flintstone

[geobeck]

If it was the composition of the soil in which the body was buried that preserved it for so long, then perhaps similar finds could be made in other non-tundra climes.

Uh-oh, maybe they'll have to declare all of northern Alberta a protected archaeological site...

Re:10 000 - 40 000 years old fossils?

[operagost]

Thanks, Captain Hyperbole. I'm sure that a small contingent of people who wish to believe something you don't will threaten our way of life. They must be exterminated! By the way, about as many people believed in creationism both before and after the Dark Ages, so I dare say that it is not a reasonable indicator of "social progress."

10000 years from now

[MillionthMonkey]

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.

Award Winner

[zaivala]

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

Re:DUH

[ConanG]

There is no Rio Grande River. It's the Rio Grande. Rio means river in Spanish so it would be redundant to tack river at the end of the name. Also, it's the Sierra Nevada. Shouldn't add mountains at the end as sierra means mountain range. Redundant, once again.

Re:DUH

[PDX]

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.

Sarcasm misplaced

[ConanG]

Actually, La Brea is the name of the ranch the tar was found at and obviously named for. So 'La Brea Tar Pits' is short for 'Rancho La Brea Tar Pits'. It's not redundant in this case as it's referencing a proper noun.