‘Fossiliferous’ Tar Pit Keeps Dig Volunteers Busy

It was another mammoth year at the La Brea tar pits. More than 1,100 specimens were removed from Pit 91 this summer, according to officials of the George C. Page Museum of La Brea Discoveries in Hancock Park.

For two months every summer, volunteers uncover the fossilized remains of animals--including mammoths, mastodons, dire wolves and other extinct species--trapped in the still-bubbling tar pits over the course of 40,000 years.

The excavation at Pit 91, which can be viewed from an observation station in the park, is the only paleontological dig open to the public in any major city in the United States.

This summer’s prize was the complete skull of a saber-toothed cat, according to Christopher A. Shaw, manager of collections at the Page Museum and supervisor of the dig. Other finds included bones of the dire wolf, giant ground sloth, coyote, rabbit, gopher and eagle.

The section of the pit excavated this year was “very fossiliferous,” Shaw said. “In the past we’ve had about the same number of fossils or less, but we’ve moved more dirt.”

Throughout July and August, 15 volunteers worked 14 feet below park level, painstakingly uncovering the asphalt-soaked remains of animals and other organisms trapped about 35,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. The volunteers were supervised in the pit by Trudy Stubbs, a volunteer at the museum since 1988.

Pit 91 is one of more than 100 sites in the Hancock Park area, originally excavated early in this century, that produced an extraordinary cache of fossilized animal bones. Excavation began again in 1969, with new attention being paid to such previously ignored microfossils as pollen and insects.

There has been a summer dig in Pit 91 annually since 1984.

In recent years, the pit has given up several important specimens, including the only coast redwood fossil found in this area.

According to Associate Curator George T. Jefferson, Pit 91 should continue to produce fossils of scientific interest. The excavators are now working into the main bone mass of the pit, he points out.

“It should get better and better,” he said. “We should have especially good yields for the next four or five years.”

The pit will reopen in July, 1992.