La Brea Tar Pits

In the middle of downtown Los Angeles there is a site eerily reminiscent of Jurrasic Park -- a true Jurrasic Park and not Hollywood fiction. Amid the tall buildings, small shops, and busy traffic of the city of Los Angeles lies Hancock Park, which harbors a startling collection of hot, bubbling naturally occurring tar pits. When you enter the park, it takes a moment for your senses to adjust to the stunning contrast between the urban chaos that is modern Los Angeles and this lush green park that is filled with bubbling cauldrons of goo, evoking images of Yellowstone National Park and wild lands of long ago.

The La Brea Tar Pits are estimated to be about 40,000 years old, and over the years a great many ancient animals got entrapped in the tar and died. Consequently, the bones of many varieties of ancient animals have been nearly perfectly preserved in the tar, providing a wealth of fossils for eager scientists to study. The museum makes a point of noting that no dinosaurs were found here, but only prehistoric mammals of more recent ancient times. The tar pits are fascinating to look at, and Hancock Park also contains the Page Museum, which displays many of the fossils that have been discovered in the tar pits, along with much historical and geological information about the area. The museum is wonderful and has many interesting fossils, including huge ground sloths, California camels, sabertoothed cats, and an amazing wall of over 400 skulls of dire wolves (illustrating how much variation there is even among members of the same species). For anyone planning to visit, it is also worth noting that the museum gives free admission to students and also teachers (including professors :). This place is a "must see" if you're in Los Angeles!

Pictures can be found here. (The pictures at the end are from a beautiful pond filled with turtles and koi that is inside the museum. I have no idea why it is there, except maybe to balance all the dead animal karma with a few live animals. :)