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Long before Los Angeles traffic clogged its streets along Wilshire Boulevard, Rancho La Brea was home to Ice Age animals and predators like predatory birds that hunted them – creating one of the world’s premier fossil deposits and an ideal candidate for redesign. To tackle this task, the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County engaged international architecture firms to submit ideas on how the 12-acre Tar Pits complex could better connect with Hancock Park while telling more of the story of the last Ice Age. Blooloop recently met up with Dr Lori Bettison-Varga as well as excavation Site Director Emily Lindsey to gain more insight into this exciting project and get involved with this effort.
The Tar Pits may be best known for containing mammoths and saber-toothed tigers, but there’s so much more to discover here at the museum. Take for instance two leafcutter bee pupae discovered in the tar and preserved as pupae, ready to become adults later. Micro-CT scans revealed they’re Megachile gentilis bees, still present today lining their burrows with bits of leaves to ensure proper development for offspring.
Los Angeles tar pits are one of the city’s coolest attractions, and are typically free to stroll through most times (but tickets must be purchased for entry to the Page Museum). But as of July 1st, admission fees to both will increase substantially: adults will now need to pay $18 in order to visit both museums (this represents an increase of 20 percent); children and seniors can still get into both at their original rates of $7 per adult ticket.
