On this date in 1769 the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California were first noticed by Europeans. The site is today known as the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum. 10 facts:
So what is the significance of this place? It’s like a spring only natural asphalt bubbles up instead of water, and has been doing so since the ice age. Animals, Birds and insects would get trapped in it and turned into fossils, so it is an area of great scientific interest. The museum is called the George C. Page Museum, and it displays specimens of the creatures which died there.
The first Europeans to discover it were from Spain, a group of explorers led by Gaspar de Portolá, to be exact. One of the party, one Father Juan Crespí made the first written observations. He described “geysers of tar issuing from the ground like springs” and christened them Los Volcanes de Brea (the Tar Volcanoes).
Brea is Spanish for tar, and so the name translates as The Tar Tar Pits.
The tar pits have yielded one of the biggest collections of Ice Age fossils in the world – more than 600 different species. These include: saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, Bison, Horses, a giant ground Sloth, turtles, Snails, clams, millipedes, Fish, gophers, an American lion, bees, beetles, birds and mammoths. Some of these were discovered while excavating a new underground car park near the site in 2009, including a nearly intact mammoth skeleton, nicknamed Zed. Zed is only missing a rear leg, a vertebra, and the top of its skull, which was sheared off by construction equipment. It has been noted that about 90% of the fossils come from carnivores, the theory being that predators would see prey trapped in the goo and think it was an easy meal, only to become mired themselves.
In fact, entire ecosystems have been uncovered including fossils of plants, pollen and insects. The insects, which have a low tolerance for climate variations, have taught scientists that the climate in the Los Angeles area has not changed much over the past 50,000 years.
In 2007, scientists discovered about 200 species of microorganisms living in the asphalt, some of which had never been observed before. Seeing as asphalt isn’t exactly the kind of environment we imagine as supportive of life (no water, little or no oxygen, and lots of toxic chemicals) scientists are particularly interested in them because they might be able to teach us something about possible life on other planets.
One thing they don’t dig up there, however, is Dinosaurs. Most of the fossils at La Brea date from 11,000 to 50,000 years ago—about 65 million years after dinosaurs went extinct.
Ancient humans used the tar as caulk for their boats, but knew to tread carefully so as not to get stuck, or perhaps if anyone did, they’d co-operate to get them out. Hence human remains have only been found once. In 1914, researchers at the tar pits discovered a 9000-year-old skeleton of a woman in her 20s, who it is believed was ceremoniously buried there with her pet Dog. That said, there was an earlier theory that perhaps she was a murder victim, Los Angeles’s first homicide case.
Which brings us to a 1990 movie which used the Tar Pits as a location. It’s called Bad Influence, in which the bad guy beats a woman to death in her boyfriend’s flat with his golf club in an attempt to frame the boyfriend for the murder. The boyfriend and his brother act in desperation and dump the body in the Tar Pits, where it is later found by the police.
While no murder victims have been found there in real life, murder weapons have been dumped there. In 2013 a police diver went 17 feet under the surface of the pits, looking for weapons in a cold case homicide, and found several items of interest. The officer in question, David Mascarenas, commented “This is by far the craziest thing I’ve ever done.”
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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