PUBLICATIONS | SCIENCE SERIES

RANCHO LA BREA
TREASURES OF THE TAR PITS
edited by John M. Harris and George T. Jefferson

Science Series 31
Published by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
87 pages, color illustrations and photographs, 1985.
Price: $11.95 paper cover (ISBN 0-938644-19-X)

Cover Photograph
Three life-size fiberglass reproductions of mammoths at the Lake Pits in front of the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries.

Rancho La Brea, once a Mexican land grant near the small Pueblo de los Angeles and now a park in the heart of America's second largest city, is one of the world's most famous fossil sites. From tar pits formerly mined for natural asphalt, an incredibly rich treasure trove of fossils up to 40,000 years in age has been recovered. Here huge mammoths, fierce saber-toothed cats, packs of dire wolves, and hosts of birds became trapped and entombed. Sharing their fate were many other creatures ranging in size from tiny insects to bizarre giant ground sloths.

Now impressively displayed at the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries, the fossils from the asphalt provide a detailed picture of life in North America during the closing phases of the last great Ice Age. This book, prepared by curators from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, explains how the asphalt deposits were formed, how the fossils became preserved, and how they were later discovered and excavated. Each important group of fossils is in turn described, illustrated, and placed into context.

The result is a comprehensive but easy to read account of this unique natural treasure.