Rancho La Brea Research Studies | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

Research at Rancho La Brea

The first published work mentioning the fossils of Rancho La Brea was written by William Denton of Wellesley College and published by the Boston Society of Natural History in 1875. However, it was not until the early 1900s, after W.W. Orcutt—a well known Los Angeles geologist—had amassed a collection of sabertoothed cats, dire wolves, and ground sloths that the site's importance was truly recognized, Orcutt later entrusted these to Dr. John C. Merriam of the University of California. Explorations by the University of California, the Southern California Academy of Sciences, and Los Angeles High School resulted in large collections of fossils from the site. T he Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science, and Art was built at Exposition Park in part to house the fossils collected by the Southern California Academy of Sciences . In 1913 the Hancock family gave sole permission to the newly opened Los Angeles County Museum to excavate for two years. During those two years the major portion of our current large specimen collection was obtained. These were the focus of major research works that provided valuable contributions to our knowledge of the late Pleistocene in North America.

EARLY RESEARCHERS

Chester Stock, Ph.D.
(1892-1950)
Chief Curator 1948-1950
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Chester Stock was a Berkeley graduate, a cofounder of the Geology Department at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA and held the position of Chief Curator of the pision of Science at the Los Angeles County Museum in 1948. Working first under the supervision of eminent paleontologist John C. Merriam and later as his colleague, Stock's contributions to the study of Pleistocene fossils, particularly the fauna of Rancho La Brea, are still highly regarded. A record of Pleistocene life in California published in 1930 was the first scientific work published by the Natural History Museum and is now in its seventh edition. Reprints of his numerous publications and much of his correspondence are now housed in the archives of the Stock Memorial Library at the Page Musuem. In 1951 George Gaylord Simpson published a biography of Stock (National Academy Biographical Memoirs 27:335-362). Stock built an impressive collection of vertebrate fossils at Caltech by organising expeditions throughout the southwestern US and northern Mexico. This program ended aftter Stock's untimely death in 1950. In 1957, the collection amassed by Stock and his students was purchased by the Natural History Museum and now forms a significant portion of the Museum's vertebrate paleontology holdings.

Hildegarde Howard, Ph.D.
(1901-1998)
Chief Curator 1951-1961
Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Hildegarde Howard had a long association with the Natural History Museum, beginning her career as an assistant for the museum's osteologist J.W. Lytle while studying for her undergraduate degree at the southern branch of the University of California. Howard obtained her Ph.D. from Berkeley on "Avifauna of Emeryville Shellmound," a publication that is still highly regarded by avian paleontologists. Her one hundred and forty publications included much more than the avifauna of Rancho La Brea. She was also the recipient of the prestigious Brewster Medal for outstanding research in the field of avian paleontology from the American Ornithologists Union. In 1991 she donated her original notes and manuscripts to the archives of the Stock Memorial Library at the Page Museum.

Roy Moody, Ph.D.
(1880-1934)
Research Associate
Wellcome Research Institution
Photo by University of Kansas

Roy Moody was an anatomist, librarian, and teacher of paleodontology before becoming financially independent in 1930. It was then that he began his pioneering work of paleopathology at Rancho La Brea. This was the perfect place for his studies, as the collection has thousands of well preserved pathologic specimens. Just prior to his untimely death he finished but did not publish his manuscript titled "Paleopathology of the California Sabertooth and other Felidae." This is available from the archives of the Wellcome Foundation in England.

RESEARCH TODAY

The collections at Rancho La Brea are still at the core of late Pleistocene North American research today. Staff, research associates, professional paleontologists, and graduate students frequent the collections on a weekly basis. Today's research ranges from carbon-14 dating projects to asphalt dwelling microbial ecology to traditional taxonomic and extinct local faunal studies. Many questions still remain to be answered. The collections are available for anyone interested in doing formal research. All inquiries must be made through the Collections Manager, including requests for loans of specimens. We only loan specimens to institutions.

Ornithology Research

Ken Campbell, Ph.D.

Curator of Fossil Birds

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

Los Angeles, CA

kcampbell@nhm.org 

My current research on the fossil birds of Rancho La Brea includes two major projects. One is the detailed description of the bones of teratorns and the identification of distinguishing characteristics of the two genera and species that occur in the tar pit collections. The second is a complete reevaluation of the nine species of fossil owls in the collections, which is undertaken in collaboration with Dr. Zbigniew Bochenski of Poland. The study of the owls will result in the description of new genera and species. A recently completed study was a revision and redescription of the extinct California Turkey, Meleagris californica, coauthored with Dr. Bochenski. Other families of birds are also being prepared for detailed revisionary studies.

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