Just outside the Page Museum in Hancock Park is the Pit 91 excavation site. In this on-going excavation, modern techniques and practices are used to carefully find and remove fossils larger than half an inch, in three foot square and six inch deep grids, at a pace of about four of these grids each season. By carefully mapping and photographing the fossils as they are found within the grids, scientists understand how the pits formed and how the animals may have become entrapped. In each two month-long excavation season, about 1000 bones are recovered. The dirt that encloses the bones is then treated with solvent to remove the asphalt so that microfossils (tiny insect and plant remains, and shell and bones) can also be recovered.
Foot Note!
Started in 1969, the Pit 91 excavation is the longest on-going urban paleontological excavation site in the world! The excavations are conducted during the summer months from early July till the beginning of September each year.
La
Brea Geology
Fauna
Human
Exploration
Ice
Age Extinction
Pit
91
